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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a></div>
  24       <div class="date"> 5th July 2013</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
  26 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
  27 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
  28 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
  29 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
  30 ended up picking a
  31 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
  32 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
  33 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
  34 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
  35 on that below.</p>
  36
  37 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
  38 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
  39 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
  40 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
  41 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
  42 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
  43 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
  44 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
  45 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
  46
  47 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
  48 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
  49 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
  50 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
  51 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
  52 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
  53 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
  54
  55 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
  56 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
  57
  58 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
  59 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
  60 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
  61 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
  62 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
  63 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
  64 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
  65 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
  66 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
  67 kernel developers as
  68 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
  69 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
  70 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
  71 Lenovo forums, both for
  72 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
  73 2012-11-10</a> and for
  74 <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
  75 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
  76 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
  77 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
  78 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
  79 There is even a
  80 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
  81 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
  82 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
  83
  84 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
  85 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
  86 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
  87 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
  88 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
  89 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
  90 fixed. :)</p>
  91 </div>
  92       <div class="tags">
  93
  94
  95         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  96
  97
  98       </div>
  99     </div>
 100     <div class="padding"></div>
 101
 102     <div class="entry">
 103       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a></div>
 104       <div class="date"> 3rd July 2013</div>
 105       <div class="body"><p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
 106 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
 107
 108 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
 109 2013-07-03</strong></p>
 110
 111 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 112 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
 113
 114 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
 115
 116 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
 117 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 118 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 119 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
 120 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 121 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 122 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 123 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 124 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
 125 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
 126 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
 127 desktop contains
 128 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
 129 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
 130 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
 131 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
 132
 133 <p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
 134 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
 135 Squeeze release.</p>
 136
 137 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
 138 <ul>
 139   <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
 140   <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
 141     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
 142     brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
 143   <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
 144     they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
 145     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
 146   <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
 147     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
 148     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
 149     too.</li>
 150   <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
 151     are too few to make the package useful.</li>
 152 </ul>
 153 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
 154 <ul>
 155   <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
 156   <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
 157   <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
 158     up for some language options.</li>
 159   <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
 160   <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
 161   <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
 162     d-i is doing it.</li>
 163   <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
 164     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
 165   <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
 166     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
 167     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
 168   <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
 169     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
 170   <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
 171   <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
 172     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
 173   <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
 174     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
 175 </ul>
 176 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
 177 <ul>
 178   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 179     available yet (698840).</li>
 180   <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
 181 </ul>
 182 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
 183
 184 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
 185 <ul>
 186   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
 187   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
 188   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
 189 </ul>
 190
 191 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
 192 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
 193
 194 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
 195 <ul>
 196   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
 197   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
 198   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
 199 </ul>
 200
 201 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
 202 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
 203
 204 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
 205
 206 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
 207 </div>
 208       <div class="tags">
 209
 210
 211         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 212
 213
 214       </div>
 215     </div>
 216     <div class="padding"></div>
 217
 218     <div class="entry">
 219       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a></div>
 220       <div class="date">25th June 2013</div>
 221       <div class="body"><p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
 222 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
 223 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
 224 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
 225 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
 226 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
 227 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
 228 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
 229 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
 230 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
 231 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
 232
 233 <p><pre>
 234 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 235 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
 236 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
 237 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
 238 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
 239 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
 240 firmware-ipw2x00
 241 firmware-ipw2x00
 242 Preconfiguring packages ...
 243 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
 244 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
 245 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
 246 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
 247 #
 248 </pre></p>
 249
 250 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
 251 printed instead:</p>
 252
 253 <p><pre>
 254 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 255 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 256 #
 257 </pre></p>
 258
 259 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
 260 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
 261
 262 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
 263 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
 264 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
 265 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
 266 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
 267 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
 268 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
 269 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
 270 machine.</p>
 271
 272 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
 273 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
 274 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
 275 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
 276 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
 277 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
 278 </div>
 279       <div class="tags">
 280
 281
 282         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 283
 284
 285       </div>
 286     </div>
 287     <div class="padding"></div>
 288
 289     <div class="entry">
 290       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html">The value of a good distro wide test suite...</a></div>
 291       <div class="date">22nd June 2013</div>
 292       <div class="body"><p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
 293 Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
 294 which check that services are running, working, and return the
 295 expected results.  It runs automatically just after the first boot on
 296 test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
 297 installations (using non-test ISOs).  It test that the LDAP service is
 298 operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
 299 online resizable, etc, etc.  And it check that the PXE service is
 300 configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
 301
 302 <p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
 303 Edu Wheezy release.  These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
 304 complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
 305 happen all the needed packages need to be on them.  Thanks to our test
 306 suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
 307 cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
 308 When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
 309 using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
 310 working packages to get it working.  And ad the packages changed name
 311 from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
 312 debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
 313 packages during installation.  Without our test suite, I suspect we
 314 would never have discovered this before release.  Now it is fixed
 315 right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
 316
 317 <p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
 318 administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
 319 test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
 320 any errors are detected.  This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
 321 the problem.</p>
 322
 323 <p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
 324 please join us on
 325 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
 326 irc.debian.org</a> and the
 327 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
 328 list.</p>
 329 </div>
 330       <div class="tags">
 331
 332
 333         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 334
 335
 336       </div>
 337     </div>
 338     <div class="padding"></div>
 339
 340     <div class="entry">
 341       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html">Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</a></div>
 342       <div class="date">17th June 2013</div>
 343       <div class="body"><p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
 344 Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
 345 globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
 346 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
 347 #debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
 348 worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
 349 help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
 350 with him, to learn more about him.</p>
 351
 352 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 353
 354 <p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
 355 which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
 356 party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
 357 friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
 358 country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
 359 community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
 360 began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
 361 constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
 362 field.</p>
 363
 364 <p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
 365 provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
 366 activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
 367 of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
 368 software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
 369 the only one we have in our country.</p>
 370
 371 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 372 project?</strong></p>
 373
 374 <p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
 375 even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
 376 it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
 377 educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
 378 love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
 379 technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
 380 ways to contribute.</p>
 381
 382 <p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
 383 configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
 384 haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
 385 areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
 386 software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
 387 one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
 388 environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
 389 for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
 390 from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
 391 have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
 392
 393 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 394 Edu?</strong></p>
 395
 396 <p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
 397 maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
 398 took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
 399 Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
 400 time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
 401 with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
 402 out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
 403 it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
 404
 405 <p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
 406 availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
 407 scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
 408 only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
 409 lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
 410 project.</p>
 411
 412 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 413 Edu?</strong></p>
 414
 415 <p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
 416 disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
 417 project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
 418 a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I'd like to see
 419 Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
 420 ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
 421 lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
 422 opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
 423 to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
 424
 425 <p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
 426 with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
 427 to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
 428 on.</p>
 429
 430 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 431
 432 <p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
 433 daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
 434 am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
 435 Enlightenment project a lot!),
 436 <a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/‎">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
 437 use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
 438 <a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
 439 get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
 440 stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
 441
 442 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 443 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 444
 445 <p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
 446 now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
 447 that:</p>
 448
 449 <ul>
 450
 451 <li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
 452
 453 <li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
 454     experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
 455     of teenagers more?</li>
 456
 457 <li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
 458     be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
 459     other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
 460     them!)</li>
 461
 462 <li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
 463     lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
 464     person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
 465
 466 </ul>
 467
 468 <p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
 469 example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
 470 it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
 471 people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
 472 very hard to convert against their will.</p>
 473 </div>
 474       <div class="tags">
 475
 476
 477         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 478
 479
 480       </div>
 481     </div>
 482     <div class="padding"></div>
 483
 484     <div class="entry">
 485       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html">Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</a></div>
 486       <div class="date">12th June 2013</div>
 487       <div class="body"><p>There is a certain cross-over between the
 488 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 489 project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
 490 project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
 491 effort between the projects.  One person with a foot in both camps is
 492 Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
 493
 494 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 495
 496 <p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
 497 days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
 498 getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
 499
 500 <p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
 501 opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
 502 each other.</p>
 503
 504 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 505 project?</strong></p>
 506
 507 <p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
 508 first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
 509 [Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
 510 London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
 511 Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
 512 it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
 513 was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
 514 day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
 515 over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
 516 been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
 517 still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
 518 we'll get there one day.</p>
 519
 520 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 521 Edu?</strong></p>
 522
 523 <p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
 524 it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
 525 that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
 526 very high quality work.</p>
 527
 528 <p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
 529 set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
 530 with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
 531 helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
 532 community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
 533
 534 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 535 Edu?</strong></p>
 536
 537 <p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
 538 separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
 539 what I originally rambled on about)</p>
 540
 541 <p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
 542 project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
 543 think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
 544 content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
 545 on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
 546 years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
 547 concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
 548 more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
 549 myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
 550 currently.</p>
 551
 552 <p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
 553 for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
 554 their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
 555 educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
 556 have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
 557 much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
 558 autonomous.</p>
 559
 560 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 561
 562 <p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
 563 Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
 564 some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
 565 particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
 566 so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
 567
 568 <p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
 569 git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
 570 which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
 571 while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
 572 Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
 573 it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
 574 up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
 575 X.</p>
 576
 577 <p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
 578 using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
 579 people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
 580 it :p)
 581
 582 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 583 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 584
 585 <p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
 586 many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
 587 don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
 588 that.</p>
 589
 590 <p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
 591 problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
 592 advantage of that.</p>
 593
 594 <p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
 595 some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
 596 Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
 597 general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
 598 Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
 599 that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
 600 best solution for them.</p>
 601
 602 <p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
 603 educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
 604 make a decision that would work for them.</p>
 605 </div>
 606       <div class="tags">
 607
 608
 609         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 610
 611
 612       </div>
 613     </div>
 614     <div class="padding"></div>
 615
 616     <div class="entry">
 617       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a></div>
 618       <div class="date">11th June 2013</div>
 619       <div class="body"><p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
 620 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
 621 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
 622 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
 623 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
 624 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
 625 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
 626 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
 627 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
 628 i915 driver used by the
 629 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 630 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
 631
 632 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
 633 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
 634 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
 635 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
 636 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
 637
 638 <pre>
 639 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
 640 update-initramfs -u -k all
 641 </pre>
 642
 643 <p>Since March 2012 there is
 644 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
 645 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
 646 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
 647 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
 648 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
 649 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
 650 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
 651 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
 652 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
 653 number.</p>
 654
 655 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
 656 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
 657
 658 <p><pre>
 659 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
 660     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
 661     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 662  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
 663  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
 664     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 665  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
 666     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 667  Latency: 0
 668  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
 669  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
 670  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 671  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
 672  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
 673  Capabilities: <access denied>
 674  Kernel driver in use: i915
 675 </pre></p>
 676
 677 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
 678
 679 <p><pre>
 680 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
 681        ...
 682         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
 683         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
 684        ...
 685 }
 686 </pre></p>
 687
 688 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
 689 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
 690 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
 691 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
 692 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
 693 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
 694 yet shown up in
 695 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
 696 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
 697 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
 698 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
 699 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
 700 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
 701
 702 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
 703 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
 704 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
 705 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
 706 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
 707 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
 708 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
 709 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
 710 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
 711 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
 712 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
 713 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
 714 </div>
 715       <div class="tags">
 716
 717
 718         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 719
 720
 721       </div>
 722     </div>
 723     <div class="padding"></div>
 724
 725     <div class="entry">
 726       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a></div>
 727       <div class="date">10th June 2013</div>
 728       <div class="body"><p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
 729 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
 730
 731 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
 732 2013-06-10</strong></p>
 733
 734 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
 735 alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
 736
 737 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
 738
 739 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
 740 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 741 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 742 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
 743 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 744 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 745 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 746 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 747 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
 748 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
 749 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
 750 desktop contains
 751 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
 752 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
 753 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
 754 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
 755
 756 <p>This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
 757 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
 758 Squeeze release.</p>
 759
 760 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
 761
 762 <ul>
 763
 764 <li>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
 765 <li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
 766 <li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
 767 <li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
 768 <li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
 769
 770 </ul>
 771
 772 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
 773
 774 <ul>
 775
 776 <li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
 777 <li>Updated translation of the installation.
 778 <li>New Romanian translation.
 779 <li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
 780 <li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
 781 <li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
 782 <li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
 783 <li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
 784 <li>More testsuite tests.
 785 <li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
 786 <li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
 787
 788 <li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
 789 LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
 790
 791 <li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
 792 them up with GOsa².</li>
 793
 794 <li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
 795
 796 <li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
 797 slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
 798 entered password). </li>
 799
 800 </ul>
 801
 802 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
 803
 804 <ul>
 805
 806 <li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
 807
 808 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 809 available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
 810 missing import feature).</li>
 811
 812 <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
 813
 814 <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
 815 own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
 816 unfixed.</li>
 817
 818 </ul>
 819
 820 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
 821
 822 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
 823
 824 <ul>
 825
 826 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
 827
 828 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
 829
 830 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
 831
 832 </ul>
 833
 834 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
 835 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</p>
 836
 837 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
 838
 839 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
 840 </div>
 841       <div class="tags">
 842
 843
 844         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 845
 846
 847       </div>
 848     </div>
 849     <div class="padding"></div>
 850
 851     <div class="entry">
 852       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html">Is there a PHP expert in the building?  Debian Edu need help!</a></div>
 853       <div class="date"> 5th June 2013</div>
 854       <div class="body"><p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
 855 We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
 856 hope to get released soon.  The two problems require some with PHP
 857 skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
 858 the project:
 859
 860 <ol>
 861
 862 <li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
 863   (slbackup-php) using the root user and password.  This is
 864   <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
 865   This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
 866   Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
 867
 868 <li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
 869   using ldif nor using CSV files.  The feature was disabled after a
 870   major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
 871   This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
 872   #698840</a>.</li>
 873
 874 </ol>
 875
 876 <p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
 877 (<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
 878 irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
 879 </div>
 880       <div class="tags">
 881
 882
 883         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 884
 885
 886       </div>
 887     </div>
 888     <div class="padding"></div>
 889
 890     <div class="entry">
 891       <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html">Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</a></div>
 892       <div class="date"> 4th June 2013</div>
 893       <div class="body"><p>It has been a while since my last English
 894 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
 895 interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
 896 pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
 897 time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
 898 in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
 899
 900 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 901
 902 <p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
 903 professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
 904 mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
 905 probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
 906
 907 <p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
 908 and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
 909 packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
 910
 911 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 912 project?</strong></p>
 913
 914 <p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
 915 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
 916 Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
 917 then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
 918 manual.
 919
 920 <p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
 921 virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
 922 shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
 923 how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
 924
 925 <p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
 926 ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
 927 by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>.  What pleased
 928 me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
 929 there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
 930 to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
 931 artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
 932 <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
 933 movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
 934 <a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
 935
 936 <p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
 937 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
 938 Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
 939 beautiful project.</p>
 940
 941 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 942 Edu?</strong></p>
 943
 944 <p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
 945 community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
 946 fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
 947
 948 <p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
 949 distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
 950 of educational free software.</p>
 951
 952 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 953 Edu?</strong></p>
 954
 955 <p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
 956 project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
 957 not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
 958 solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
 959 is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
 960
 961 <p>One can find support from a company by looking at
 962 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
 963 wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
 964 companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
 965 Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
 966 for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
 967 consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
 968 support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
 969
 970 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 971
 972 <p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
 973 most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
 974 scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
 975 also using the mathematical software
 976 <a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and
 977 <a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from
 978 source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
 979
 980 <p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
 981 using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
 982 statistics?</strong></p>
 983
 984 <p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
 985 university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and
 986 Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
 987 geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
 988
 989 <ul>
 990
 991 <li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
 992 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do
 993 constructions in planar geometry
 994
 995 <li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
 996 to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
 997 groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
 998
 999 </ul>
1000
1001 <p>I like also
1002 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
1003 provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
1004 <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
1005
1006 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1007 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1008
1009 <p>My suggestions would be to</p>
1010
1011 <ul>
1012
1013 <li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
1014
1015 <li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
1016     well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
1017     OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
1018
1019 <li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
1020
1021 <li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
1022     system.</li>
1023
1024 </ul>
1025 </div>
1026       <div class="tags">
1027
1028
1029         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
1030
1031
1032       </div>
1033     </div>
1034     <div class="padding"></div>
1035
1036     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="index.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
1037     <div id="sidebar">
1038
1039
1040
1041 <h2>Archive</h2>
1042 <ul>
1043
1044 <li>2013
1045 <ul>
1046
1047 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
1048
1049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
1050
1051 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
1052
1053 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
1054
1055 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1056
1057 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
1058
1059 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (2)</a></li>
1060
1061 </ul></li>
1062
1063 <li>2012
1064 <ul>
1065
1066 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
1067
1068 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
1069
1070 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
1071
1072 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
1073
1074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
1075
1076 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
1077
1078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
1079
1080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
1081
1082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
1083
1084 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
1085
1086 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
1087
1088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
1089
1090 </ul></li>
1091
1092 <li>2011
1093 <ul>
1094
1095 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
1096
1097 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
1098
1099 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
1100
1101 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
1102
1103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
1104
1105 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
1106
1107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
1108
1109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
1110
1111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
1112
1113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1114
1115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1116
1117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
1118
1119 </ul></li>
1120
1121 <li>2010
1122 <ul>
1123
1124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
1125
1126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
1127
1128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
1129
1130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
1131
1132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1133
1134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
1135
1136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
1137
1138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
1139
1140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
1141
1142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
1143
1144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
1145
1146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
1147
1148 </ul></li>
1149
1150 <li>2009
1151 <ul>
1152
1153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
1154
1155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
1156
1157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
1158
1159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
1160
1161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1162
1163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
1164
1165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
1166
1167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
1168
1169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
1170
1171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1172
1173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1174
1175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
1176
1177 </ul></li>
1178
1179 <li>2008
1180 <ul>
1181
1182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
1183
1184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
1185
1186 </ul></li>
1187
1188 </ul>
1189
1190
1191
1192 <h2>Tags</h2>
1193 <ul>
1194
1195  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
1196
1197  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
1198
1199  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
1200
1201  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
1202
1203  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
1204
1205  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
1206
1207  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
1208
1209  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (79)</a></li>
1210
1211  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (136)</a></li>
1212
1213  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
1214
1215  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
1216
1217  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
1218
1219  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (205)</a></li>
1220
1221  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
1222
1223  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
1224
1225  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
1226
1227  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
1228
1229  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
1230
1231  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
1232
1233  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
1234
1235  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
1236
1237  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
1238
1239  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
1240
1241  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
1242
1243  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (234)</a></li>
1244
1245  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (152)</a></li>
1246
1247  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
1248
1249  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
1250
1251  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
1252
1253  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
1254
1255  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
1256
1257  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
1258
1259  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
1260
1261  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
1262
1263  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
1264
1265  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
1266
1267  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
1268
1269  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
1270
1271  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
1272
1273  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
1274
1275  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
1276
1277  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
1278
1279  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
1280
1281  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
1282
1283  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
1284
1285  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
1286
1287  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
1288
1289  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
1290
1291  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
1292
1293 </ul>
1294
1295
1296     </div>
1297     <p style="text-align: right">
1298  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
1299 </p>
1300
1301   </body>
1302 </html>