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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         19th February 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
  32 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
  33 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
  34 the code in the package in question, preferably in
  35 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
  36 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
  37
  38 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
  39 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
  40 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
  41 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
  42 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
  43 out what was wrong with
  44 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
  45 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
  46 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
  47 semi-automatically.</p>
  48
  49 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
  50 file based on the code in the source package,
  51 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
  52 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
  53 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
  54 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
  55 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
  56 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
  57 option in
  58 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
  59 blog posts from 2014</a>.
  60
  61 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
  62
  63 <p><pre>
  64 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
  65 </pre></p>
  66
  67 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
  68 this might not be the best option.</p>
  69
  70 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
  71 this approach in
  72 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
  73 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
  74 dpkg-copyright' option:
  75
  76 <p><pre>
  77 cme update dpkg-copyright -quiet
  78 </pre></p>
  79
  80 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
  81 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
  82
  83 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
  84 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
  85 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
  86 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
  87 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
  88 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
  89 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
  90 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
  91 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
  92 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
  93
  94 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
  95 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
  96 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
  97 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
  98
  99 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
 100 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
 101 planet.debian.org.</p>
 102
 103 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 104 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 105 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 106
 107 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
 108 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
 109
 110 <p><pre>
 111 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
 112   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
 113 </pre></p>
 114
 115 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
 116 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
 117 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
 118 with my packages in the future.</p>
 119
 120       </div>
 121       <div class="tags">
 122
 123
 124         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>.
 125
 126
 127       </div>
 128     </div>
 129     <div class="padding"></div>
 130
 131     <div class="entry">
 132       <div class="title">
 133         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
 134       </div>
 135       <div class="date">
 136          4th February 2016
 137       </div>
 138       <div class="body">
 139         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
 140 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
 141 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
 142 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
 143 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
 144 about. :)</p>
 145
 146 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
 147 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
 148 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
 149 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
 150 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
 151 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
 152
 153 <blockquote><pre>
 154 % apt install appstream
 155 [...]
 156 % apt update
 157 [...]
 158 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
 159   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 160 firmware-qlogic
 161 %
 162 </pre></blockquote>
 163
 164 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
 165 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
 166 a way appstream can use.</p>
 167
 168 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
 169 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
 170 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
 171 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
 172 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
 173 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
 174
 175 <blockquote><pre>
 176 % apt install appstream
 177 [...]
 178 % apt update
 179 [...]
 180 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
 181   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
 182 bkchem
 183 phototonic
 184 inkscape
 185 shutter
 186 tetzle
 187 geeqie
 188 xia
 189 pinta
 190 gthumb
 191 karbon
 192 comix
 193 mirage
 194 viewnior
 195 postr
 196 ristretto
 197 kolourpaint4
 198 eog
 199 eom
 200 gimagereader
 201 midori
 202 %
 203 </pre></blockquote>
 204
 205 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
 206 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
 207
 208       </div>
 209       <div class="tags">
 210
 211
 212         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>.
 213
 214
 215       </div>
 216     </div>
 217     <div class="padding"></div>
 218
 219     <div class="entry">
 220       <div class="title">
 221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
 222       </div>
 223       <div class="date">
 224         24th January 2016
 225       </div>
 226       <div class="body">
 227         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
 228 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
 229 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
 230 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
 231 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
 232 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
 233 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
 234 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
 235 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
 236 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
 237 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
 238 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
 239 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
 240 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
 241 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
 242 entities.</p>
 243
 244 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
 245
 246 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
 247 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
 248 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
 249 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
 250 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
 251 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
 252 tool to do so is called
 253 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
 254 discovered it when I read
 255 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
 256 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
 257 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
 258 The python program was in Debian, but
 259 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
 260 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
 261 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
 262 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
 263 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
 264 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
 265 are now included
 266 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
 267
 268 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
 269 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
 270 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
 271 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
 272 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
 273 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
 274 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
 275 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
 276 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
 277 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
 278 about yourself with the services.</p>
 279
 280 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
 281 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
 282 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
 283 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
 284 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
 285 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
 286 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
 287 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
 288 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
 289 things.  A similar technique have been
 290 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
 291 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
 292 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
 293 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
 294 public.</p>
 295
 296 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
 297 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
 298 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
 299 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
 300
 301 <p>(I have uploaded
 302 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
 303 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
 304 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
 305
 306       </div>
 307       <div class="tags">
 308
 309
 310         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 311
 312
 313       </div>
 314     </div>
 315     <div class="padding"></div>
 316
 317     <div class="entry">
 318       <div class="title">
 319         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
 320       </div>
 321       <div class="date">
 322         15th January 2016
 323       </div>
 324       <div class="body">
 325         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
 326 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
 327 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
 328 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
 329 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
 330 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
 331 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
 332 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
 333 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
 334 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
 335 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
 336 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
 337 was not the first to propose this, as the
 338 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
 339 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
 340 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
 341 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
 342
 343 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
 344 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
 345 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
 346 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
 347 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
 348
 349 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
 350 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
 351 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
 352 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
 353 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
 354 done in /etc/.</p>
 355
 356 <blockquote><pre>
 357 apt install apt-transport-tor
 358 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 359 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 360 </pre></blockquote>
 361
 362 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
 363 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
 364 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
 365 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
 366
 367 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
 368 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
 369 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
 370 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
 371 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
 372 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
 373
 374 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
 375 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
 376 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
 377 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
 378 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
 379
 380 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
 381 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
 382 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
 383 system.</p>
 384
 385       </div>
 386       <div class="tags">
 387
 388
 389         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 390
 391
 392       </div>
 393     </div>
 394     <div class="padding"></div>
 395
 396     <div class="entry">
 397       <div class="title">
 398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
 399       </div>
 400       <div class="date">
 401         23rd December 2015
 402       </div>
 403       <div class="body">
 404         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
 405 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
 406 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
 407 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
 408 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
 409 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
 410
 411 <p>A few days I came across
 412 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
 413 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
 414 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
 415 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
 416 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
 417 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
 418 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
 419 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
 420 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
 421 discovered the developer
 422 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
 423 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
 424 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
 425 archive.</p>
 426
 427 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
 428 it into Debian, where it currently
 429 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
 430 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
 431
 432 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
 433 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
 434 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
 435 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
 436 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
 437 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
 438 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
 439 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
 440 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
 441 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
 442 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
 443 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
 444
 445 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
 446 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
 447 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
 448 package show up in unstable.</p>
 449
 450       </div>
 451       <div class="tags">
 452
 453
 454         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 455
 456
 457       </div>
 458     </div>
 459     <div class="padding"></div>
 460
 461     <div class="entry">
 462       <div class="title">
 463         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
 464       </div>
 465       <div class="date">
 466         20th December 2015
 467       </div>
 468       <div class="body">
 469         <p>Around three years ago, I created
 470 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
 471 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
 472 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
 473 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
 474 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
 475 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
 476 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
 477 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
 478 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
 479 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
 480 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
 481 with.</p>
 482
 483 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
 484 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
 485 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
 486 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
 487 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
 488 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
 489 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 490 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
 491 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
 492 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
 493 Debian version of appstream.</p>
 494
 495 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
 496 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
 497 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
 498 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
 499 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
 500 how do add the required
 501 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
 502 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
 503 this content:</p>
 504
 505 <blockquote><pre>
 506 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 507 &lt;component&gt;
 508   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
 509   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
 510   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
 511   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
 512   &lt;description&gt;
 513     &lt;p&gt;
 514       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
 515       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
 516       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
 517       launcher.
 518     &lt;/p&gt;
 519   &lt;/description&gt;
 520   &lt;provides&gt;
 521     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
 522   &lt;/provides&gt;
 523 &lt;/component&gt;
 524 </pre></blockquote>
 525
 526 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
 527 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
 528 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
 529 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
 530 0202.</p>
 531
 532 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
 533 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
 534 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
 535 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
 536 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
 537 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
 538 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
 539 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
 540
 541 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
 542 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
 543 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
 544 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
 545 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
 546
 547 <blockquote><pre>
 548 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
 549 </pre></blockquote>
 550
 551 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
 552 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
 553 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
 554 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
 555 question.</p>
 556
 557 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
 558 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
 559
 560 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
 561 try running this command on the command line:</p>
 562
 563 <blockquote><pre>
 564 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
 565 </pre></blockquote>
 566
 567 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
 569 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
 570
 571       </div>
 572       <div class="tags">
 573
 574
 575         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>.
 576
 577
 578       </div>
 579     </div>
 580     <div class="padding"></div>
 581
 582     <div class="entry">
 583       <div class="title">
 584         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
 585       </div>
 586       <div class="date">
 587         30th November 2015
 588       </div>
 589       <div class="body">
 590         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
 591 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
 592 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
 593 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
 594 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
 595
 596 <blockquote>
 597
 598 <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>
 599
 600 <blockquote>
 601 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
 602
 603 The first step is to choose a
 604 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
 605 code.<br/>
 606
 607 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
 608 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
 609
 610 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
 611 work<br/>
 612
 613 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
 614 </blockquote>
 615
 616 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
 617 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
 618 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
 619 0x57</a></small></p>
 620
 621 <p>As the Debian Website
 622 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
 623 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
 624 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
 625 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
 626 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
 627 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
 628 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
 629 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
 630 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
 631 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
 632 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
 633 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
 634 Freedom">FaiF</a>
 635 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
 636 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
 637 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
 638 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
 639 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
 640 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
 641 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
 642 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
 643 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
 644 In March the SFC supported a
 645 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
 646 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
 647 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
 648 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
 649 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
 650 conferences
 651 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
 652 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
 653 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
 654 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
 655 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
 656 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
 657 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
 658 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
 659 Software.</p>
 660
 661 <p>If you support Free Software,
 662 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
 663 what the SFC do, agree with their
 664 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
 665 principles</a>, are happy about their
 666 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
 667 work on a project that is an SFC
 668 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
 669 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
 670 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
 671 Allan Webber</a>,
 672 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
 673 Smith</a>,
 674 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
 675 Bacon</a>, myself and
 676 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
 677 becoming a
 678 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
 679 next week your donation will be
 680 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
 681 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
 682 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
 683 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
 684 social media accounts.</p>
 685
 686 </blockquote>
 687
 688 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
 689 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
 690 supporter too?</p>
 691
 692       </div>
 693       <div class="tags">
 694
 695
 696         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
 697
 698
 699       </div>
 700     </div>
 701     <div class="padding"></div>
 702
 703     <div class="entry">
 704       <div class="title">
 705         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
 706       </div>
 707       <div class="date">
 708         17th November 2015
 709       </div>
 710       <div class="body">
 711         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
 712 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
 713 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
 714 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
 715 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
 716 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
 717 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
 718 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
 719 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
 720 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
 721
 722 <pre>
 723 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
 724       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
 725 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
 726 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
 727 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 728 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 729 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 730 </pre>
 731
 732 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
 733 my old key.</p>
 734
 735 <p>If you signed my old key
 736 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
 737 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
 738 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
 739 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
 740
 741       </div>
 742       <div class="tags">
 743
 744
 745         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 746
 747
 748       </div>
 749     </div>
 750     <div class="padding"></div>
 751
 752     <div class="entry">
 753       <div class="title">
 754         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
 755       </div>
 756       <div class="date">
 757         24th September 2015
 758       </div>
 759       <div class="body">
 760         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
 761 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
 762 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
 763 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
 764 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
 765 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
 766 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
 767
 768 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
 769
 770 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
 771 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
 772 by someone else.  I found
 773 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
 774 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
 775 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
 776 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
 777 from him.  Via
 778 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
 779 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
 780 discovered
 781 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
 782 available in Debian.</p>
 783
 784 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
 785 battery stats ever since. Now my
 786 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
 787 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
 788 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
 789 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
 790
 791 <pre>
 792 #!/bin/sh
 793 # Inspired by
 794 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
 795 # See also
 796 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
 797 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
 798
 799 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
 800     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
 801
 802 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
 803     (
 804         printf "timestamp,"
 805         for f in $files; do
 806             printf "%s," $f
 807         done
 808         echo
 809     ) > "$logfile"
 810 fi
 811
 812 log_battery() {
 813     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
 814     # when several log processes run in parallel.
 815     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
 816         for f in $files; do \
 817             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
 818         done)
 819     echo "$msg"
 820 }
 821
 822 cd /sys/class/power_supply
 823
 824 for bat in BAT*; do
 825     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
 826 done
 827 </pre>
 828
 829 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
 830 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
 831 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
 832 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
 833 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
 834 The code for the Debian package
 835 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
 836 available on github</a>.</p>
 837
 838 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
 839
 840 <pre>
 841 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
 842 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
 843 [...]
 844 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 845 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 846 </pre>
 847
 848 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
 849 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
 850 battery.</p>
 851
 852 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
 853 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
 854 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
 855 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
 856 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
 857 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
 858 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
 859 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
 860 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
 861 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
 862 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
 863 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
 864 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
 865 Linux too.</p>
 866
 867 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
 868 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
 869 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
 870 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
 871 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
 872 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
 873 load).</p>
 874
 875 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
 876 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
 877 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
 878 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
 879 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
 880 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
 881 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
 882 those.</p>
 883
 884 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
 885 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
 886 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
 887 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
 888 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
 889 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
 890 specific.</p>
 891
 892       </div>
 893       <div class="tags">
 894
 895
 896         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>.
 897
 898
 899       </div>
 900     </div>
 901     <div class="padding"></div>
 902
 903     <div class="entry">
 904       <div class="title">
 905         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
 906       </div>
 907       <div class="date">
 908          5th July 2015
 909       </div>
 910       <div class="body">
 911         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
 912 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
 913 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
 914 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
 915 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
 916 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
 917 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
 918 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
 919 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
 920 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
 921 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
 922
 923 <p>One tip I got was to use the
 924 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
 925 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
 926 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
 927 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
 928 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
 929 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
 930
 931 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
 932 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
 933 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
 934 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
 935 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
 936 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
 937 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
 938 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
 939 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
 940 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
 941 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
 942 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
 943 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
 944 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
 945 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
 946
 947 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
 948 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
 949 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
 950 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
 951
 952 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
 953 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
 954
 955 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
 956 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
 957 different
 958 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
 959 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
 960
 961       </div>
 962       <div class="tags">
 963
 964
 965         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>.
 966
 967
 968       </div>
 969     </div>
 970     <div class="padding"></div>
 971
 972     <div class="entry">
 973       <div class="title">
 974         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
 975       </div>
 976       <div class="date">
 977          3rd July 2015
 978       </div>
 979       <div class="body">
 980         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
 981 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
 982 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
 983 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
 984 flickering.</p>
 985
 986 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
 987 still as
 988 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
 989 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
 990 good help from
 991 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
 992 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
 993 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
 994 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
 995 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
 996 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
 997 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
 998 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
 999 deteriorated since X41.</p>
1000
1001 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
1002 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
1003 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
1004 have suggestions.</p>
1005
1006 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
1007 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
1008 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
1009
1010       </div>
1011       <div class="tags">
1012
1013
1014         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>.
1015
1016
1017       </div>
1018     </div>
1019     <div class="padding"></div>
1020
1021     <div class="entry">
1022       <div class="title">
1023         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
1024       </div>
1025       <div class="date">
1026         22nd November 2014
1027       </div>
1028       <div class="body">
1029         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
1030 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
1031 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
1032 courtesy of
1033 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
1034 Schubert</a> and
1035 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
1036 McVittie</a>.
1037
1038 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
1039 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
1040 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
1041 you upgrade:</p>
1042
1043 <p><blockquote><pre>
1044 Package: systemd-sysv
1045 Pin: release o=Debian
1046 Pin-Priority: -1
1047 </pre></blockquote><p>
1048
1049 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
1050 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
1051 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
1052 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
1053 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
1054
1055 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
1056 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
1057 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
1058 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
1059 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
1060 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
1061
1062 <p><blockquote><pre>
1063 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
1064 </pre></blockquote><p>
1065
1066 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
1067
1068 <p><blockquote><pre>
1069 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
1070 </pre></blockquote><p>
1071
1072 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
1073 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
1074
1075 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
1076 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
1077 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
1078 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
1079 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
1080 Jessie is released.</p>
1081
1082 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
1083 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
1084 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
1085 line.</p>
1086
1087       </div>
1088       <div class="tags">
1089
1090
1091         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1092
1093
1094       </div>
1095     </div>
1096     <div class="padding"></div>
1097
1098     <div class="entry">
1099       <div class="title">
1100         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
1101       </div>
1102       <div class="date">
1103         10th November 2014
1104       </div>
1105       <div class="body">
1106         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
1107 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
1108 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
1109
1110 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
1111 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
1112 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
1113 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
1114 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
1115 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
1116 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
1117 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
1118 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
1119 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
1120 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
1121 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
1122 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
1123 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
1124 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
1125
1126 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
1127 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
1128 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
1129 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
1130 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
1131 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
1132 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
1133 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
1134 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
1135 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
1136 were fairly easy, and
1137 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
1138 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
1139 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
1140 useful approach.</p>
1141
1142 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
1143 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
1144 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
1145 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
1146 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
1147 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
1148 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
1149 this:</p>
1150
1151 <p><blockquote><pre>
1152 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
1153   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
1154 </pre></blockquote></p>
1155
1156 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
1157 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
1158
1159 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
1160 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
1161 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
1162 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
1163 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
1164 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
1165 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
1166 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
1167 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
1168 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
1169 system.</p>
1170
1171 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
1172 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
1173 SMTorP. :)</p>
1174
1175       </div>
1176       <div class="tags">
1177
1178
1179         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1180
1181
1182       </div>
1183     </div>
1184     <div class="padding"></div>
1185
1186     <div class="entry">
1187       <div class="title">
1188         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
1189       </div>
1190       <div class="date">
1191         22nd October 2014
1192       </div>
1193       <div class="body">
1194         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
1195 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
1196 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
1197 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
1198 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
1199 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
1200 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
1201 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
1202 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
1203 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
1204 lists I recently took over:</p>
1205
1206 <p><blockquote><pre>
1207 % time listadmin xiph
1208 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
1209 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
1210
1211 real    0m1.709s
1212 user    0m0.232s
1213 sys     0m0.012s
1214 %
1215 </pre></blockquote></p>
1216
1217 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
1218 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
1219 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
1220 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
1221 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
1222 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
1223 program.</p>
1224
1225 <p>If you install
1226 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
1227 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
1228 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
1229
1230 <p><blockquote><pre>
1231 username username@example.org
1232 spamlevel 23
1233 default discard
1234 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
1235
1236 password secret
1237 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
1238 mailman-list@lists.example.com
1239
1240 password hidden
1241 other-list@otherserver.example.org
1242 </pre></blockquote></p>
1243
1244 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
1245 learn the details.</p>
1246
1247 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
1248 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
1249 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
1250 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
1251
1252 <p><blockquote><pre>
1253 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
1254 </pre></blockquote></p>
1255
1256 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
1257 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
1258 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
1259 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
1260 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
1261 email.</p>
1262
1263 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
1264 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
1265 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
1266 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
1267 software.</p>
1268
1269 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1270 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1271 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1272
1273 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
1274 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
1275 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
1276 sure why.</p>
1277
1278       </div>
1279       <div class="tags">
1280
1281
1282         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1283
1284
1285       </div>
1286     </div>
1287     <div class="padding"></div>
1288
1289     <div class="entry">
1290       <div class="title">
1291         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
1292       </div>
1293       <div class="date">
1294         17th October 2014
1295       </div>
1296       <div class="body">
1297         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
1298 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
1299 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
1300 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
1301 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
1302 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
1303 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
1304
1305 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
1306 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
1307 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
1308 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
1309 of this story.)</p>
1310
1311 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
1312 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
1313 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
1314 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
1315 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
1316 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
1317 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
1318 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
1319 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
1320 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
1321
1322 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
1323 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
1324 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
1325 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
1326
1327 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
1328 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
1329
1330 <p><blockquote><pre>
1331 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
1332 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
1333 </pre></blockquote></p>
1334
1335 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
1336 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
1337 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
1338 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
1339 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
1340 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
1341 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
1342 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
1343
1344 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
1345 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
1346
1347 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
1348 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
1349 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
1350 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
1351 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
1352
1353 <p><blockquote><pre>
1354 Task: isenkram-packages
1355 Section: hardware
1356 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1357  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1358  proposed.
1359 Test-new-install: show show
1360 Relevance: 8
1361 Packages: for-current-hardware
1362
1363 Task: isenkram-firmware
1364 Section: hardware
1365 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1366  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
1367  packages are proposed.
1368 Test-new-install: mark show
1369 Relevance: 8
1370 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
1371 </pre></blockquote></p>
1372
1373 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
1374 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
1375 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
1376 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
1377 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
1378
1379 <p><blockquote><pre>
1380 #!/bin/sh
1381 #
1382 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
1383 export PATH
1384 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1385 </pre></blockquote></p>
1386
1387 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
1388 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
1389
1390 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
1391 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
1392 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
1393 install.</p>
1394
1395 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
1396 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
1397 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
1398
1399       </div>
1400       <div class="tags">
1401
1402
1403         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
1404
1405
1406       </div>
1407     </div>
1408     <div class="padding"></div>
1409
1410     <div class="entry">
1411       <div class="title">
1412         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
1413       </div>
1414       <div class="date">
1415          4th October 2014
1416       </div>
1417       <div class="body">
1418         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
1419 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
1420 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
1421 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
1422
1423 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
1424
1425 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
1426 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
1427 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
1428
1429       </div>
1430       <div class="tags">
1431
1432
1433         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>.
1434
1435
1436       </div>
1437     </div>
1438     <div class="padding"></div>
1439
1440     <div class="entry">
1441       <div class="title">
1442         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
1443       </div>
1444       <div class="date">
1445          4th October 2014
1446       </div>
1447       <div class="body">
1448         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
1449 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
1450 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
1451 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
1452 Dibb.</p>
1453
1454 <p>I just wrapped up
1455 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
1456 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
1457 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
1458 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
1459 0.17.</p>
1460
1461 <ul>
1462
1463  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
1464  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
1465    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
1466  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
1467  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
1468  <li>Fix include orders</li>
1469  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
1470  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
1471  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
1472    the palette size is the same.</li>
1473  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
1474  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
1475  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
1476  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
1477    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
1478
1479 </ul>
1480
1481 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
1482 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
1483 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
1484
1485       </div>
1486       <div class="tags">
1487
1488
1489         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
1490
1491
1492       </div>
1493     </div>
1494     <div class="padding"></div>
1495
1496     <div class="entry">
1497       <div class="title">
1498         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
1499       </div>
1500       <div class="date">
1501         26th September 2014
1502       </div>
1503       <div class="body">
1504         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1505 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
1506 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
1507 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
1508 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
1509 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
1510 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
1511 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
1512 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
1513 future.  The
1514 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
1515 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
1516 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
1517 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
1518 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
1519
1520 <p>First, download the test ISO via
1521 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
1522 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
1523 or rsync (use
1524 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
1525 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
1526 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
1527 install with some tweaking.</p>
1528
1529 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
1530 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
1531
1532 <p><blockquote><pre>
1533 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
1534 </pre></blockquote></p>
1535
1536 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
1537 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
1538 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
1539 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
1540
1541 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
1542 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
1543 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
1544 your need.</p>
1545
1546 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
1547 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
1548 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
1549 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
1550 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
1551 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
1552 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
1553 days.</p>
1554
1555 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
1556 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
1557 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
1558 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
1559 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
1560 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
1561 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
1562 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
1563 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
1564
1565 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
1566 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
1567 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
1568
1569       </div>
1570       <div class="tags">
1571
1572
1573         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1574
1575
1576       </div>
1577     </div>
1578     <div class="padding"></div>
1579
1580     <div class="entry">
1581       <div class="title">
1582         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
1583       </div>
1584       <div class="date">
1585         25th September 2014
1586       </div>
1587       <div class="body">
1588         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
1589 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
1590 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
1591 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
1592 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
1593 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
1594 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
1595 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
1596 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
1597 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
1598 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
1599 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
1600 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
1601
1602 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
1603 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
1604 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
1605 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
1606 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
1607 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
1608 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
1609 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
1610 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
1611 list</a>. :)</p>
1612
1613       </div>
1614       <div class="tags">
1615
1616
1617         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
1618
1619
1620       </div>
1621     </div>
1622     <div class="padding"></div>
1623
1624     <div class="entry">
1625       <div class="title">
1626         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
1627       </div>
1628       <div class="date">
1629         16th September 2014
1630       </div>
1631       <div class="body">
1632         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
1633 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
1634 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
1635 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
1636 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
1637 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
1638 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
1639 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
1640 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
1641 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
1642 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
1643 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
1644 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
1645 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
1646
1647 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
1648 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
1649 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
1650 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
1651 depend on the small and clever package
1652 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
1653 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
1654 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
1655 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
1656 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
1657 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
1658 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
1659 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
1660 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
1661 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
1662 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
1663
1664 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
1665 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
1666 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
1667 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
1668 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
1669 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
1670 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
1671 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
1672 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
1673 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
1674 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
1675 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
1676 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
1677 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
1678 dialog.</p>
1679
1680 <p><table>
1681
1682 <tr>
1683 <th>Machine/setup</th>
1684 <th>Original tasksel</th>
1685 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
1686 <th>Reduction</th>
1687 </tr>
1688
1689 <tr>
1690 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
1691 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
1692 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
1693 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
1694 </tr>
1695
1696 <tr>
1697 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
1698 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
1699 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
1700 <td>23 min 40%</td>
1701 </tr>
1702
1703 <tr>
1704 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
1705 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
1706 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
1707 <td>11 min 50%</td>
1708 </tr>
1709
1710 <tr>
1711 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
1712 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
1713 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
1714 <td>2 min 33%</td>
1715 </tr>
1716
1717 <tr>
1718 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
1719 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
1720 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
1721 <td>4 min 21%</td>
1722 </tr>
1723
1724 </table></p>
1725
1726 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
1727 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
1728 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
1729 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
1730 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
1731 installed.</p>
1732
1733 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
1734 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
1735 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
1736 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
1737 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
1738 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
1739 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
1740 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
1741 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
1742 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
1743 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
1744 for the entire installation.</p>
1745
1746 <p>I've implemented this in the
1747 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
1748 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
1749 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
1750 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
1751 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
1752
1753 <p><blockquote><pre>
1754 #!/bin/sh
1755 set -e
1756 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1757 info() {
1758     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
1759 }
1760 error() {
1761     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
1762 }
1763 override_install() {
1764     apt-install eatmydata || true
1765     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
1766         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1767             file=/usr/bin/$bin
1768             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
1769             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
1770                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
1771                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
1772                     > /target$file.edu
1773                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
1774                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1775                     --rename --quiet --add $file
1776                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
1777             else
1778                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
1779             fi
1780         done
1781     else
1782         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
1783     fi
1784 }
1785
1786 override_install
1787 </pre></blockquote></p>
1788
1789 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
1790 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
1791
1792 <p><blockquote><pre>
1793 #! /bin/sh -e
1794 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1795 error() {
1796     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
1797 }
1798 remove_install_override() {
1799     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1800         file=/usr/bin/$bin
1801         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
1802             rm /target$file
1803             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1804                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
1805             rm /target$file.edu
1806         else
1807             error "Missing divert for $file."
1808         fi
1809     done
1810     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
1811 }
1812
1813 remove_install_override
1814 </pre></blockquote></p>
1815
1816 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
1817 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
1818 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
1819
1820 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
1821 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
1822 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
1823 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
1824 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
1825 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
1826 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
1827 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
1828 everyone.</p>
1829
1830 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
1831 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
1832 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
1833 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
1834
1835 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
1836 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
1837 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
1838 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
1839 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
1840
1841 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
1842 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
1843 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
1844 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
1845 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
1846
1847       </div>
1848       <div class="tags">
1849
1850
1851         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1852
1853
1854       </div>
1855     </div>
1856     <div class="padding"></div>
1857
1858     <div class="entry">
1859       <div class="title">
1860         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
1861       </div>
1862       <div class="date">
1863         10th September 2014
1864       </div>
1865       <div class="body">
1866         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
1867 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
1868 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
1869 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
1870 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
1871 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
1872 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
1873 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
1874 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
1875 those problems are gone now.</p>
1876
1877 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
1878 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
1879 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
1880 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
1881 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
1882
1883 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
1884 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
1885 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
1886
1887 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
1888 line:</p>
1889
1890 <p><blockquote><pre>
1891 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
1892 </pre></blockquote></p>
1893
1894 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
1895 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
1896 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
1897 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
1898
1899 <p><blockquote><pre>
1900 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
1901 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1902 %
1903 </pre></blockquote></p>
1904
1905 <p>Now if only
1906 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
1907 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
1908 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
1909 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
1910 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
1911 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
1912 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
1913 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
1914 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
1915
1916       </div>
1917       <div class="tags">
1918
1919
1920         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1921
1922
1923       </div>
1924     </div>
1925     <div class="padding"></div>
1926
1927     <div class="entry">
1928       <div class="title">
1929         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
1930       </div>
1931       <div class="date">
1932         17th June 2014
1933       </div>
1934       <div class="body">
1935         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1936 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
1937 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
1938 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
1939 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
1940
1941 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
1942 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
1943 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
1944 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
1945 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
1946 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
1947 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
1948 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
1949 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
1950 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
1951 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
1952 goals.</p>
1953
1954 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
1955 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
1956 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
1957 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
1958 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
1959 chapters together into one large web page (aka
1960 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
1961 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
1962 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
1963 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
1964 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
1965 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
1966 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
1967 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
1968 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
1969 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
1970 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
1971 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
1972 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
1973 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
1974 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
1975 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
1976 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
1977 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
1978
1979 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
1980 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
1981 track the English original.  For this we use the
1982 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
1983 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
1984 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
1985 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
1986 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
1987 files), which the translations update with the native language
1988 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
1989 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
1990 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
1991 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
1992 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
1993 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
1994 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
1995 of the documentation.</p>
1996
1997 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
1998 recommend using
1999 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
2000 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
2001 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
2002 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
2003 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
2004 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
2005 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
2006 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
2007
2008 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
2009 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
2010 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
2011 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
2012 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
2013 translated images by storing translated versions in
2014 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
2015 package maintainers know more.</p>
2016
2017 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
2018 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
2019 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
2020 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
2021 PDF version</a> or the
2022 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
2023 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
2024 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
2025
2026 <p>To learn more, check out
2027 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
2028 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
2029 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
2030 manual on the wiki</a> and
2031 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
2032 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
2033
2034       </div>
2035       <div class="tags">
2036
2037
2038         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2039
2040
2041       </div>
2042     </div>
2043     <div class="padding"></div>
2044
2045     <div class="entry">
2046       <div class="title">
2047         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
2048       </div>
2049       <div class="date">
2050         23rd April 2014
2051       </div>
2052       <div class="body">
2053         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
2054 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
2055 So I implemented one, using
2056 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
2057 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
2058 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
2059 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
2060 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
2061 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
2062
2063 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
2064 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
2065 packages to install.  The first part is in
2066 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
2067 this:</p>
2068
2069 <p><blockquote><pre>
2070 Task: isenkram
2071 Section: hardware
2072 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2073  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
2074  proposed.
2075 Test-new-install: mark show
2076 Relevance: 8
2077 Packages: for-current-hardware
2078 </pre></blockquote></p>
2079
2080 <p>The second part is in
2081 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
2082 this:</p>
2083
2084 <p><blockquote><pre>
2085 #!/bin/sh
2086 #
2087 (
2088     isenkram-lookup
2089     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2090 ) | sort -u
2091 </pre></blockquote></p>
2092
2093 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
2094 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
2095 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
2096 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
2097 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
2098 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
2099
2100 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
2101 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
2102 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
2103 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
2104 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
2105 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
2106 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
2107 the python-apt code (bug
2108 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
2109 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
2110 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
2111 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
2112 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
2113 unstable today.</p>
2114
2115 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
2116 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
2117 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
2118 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
2119 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
2120 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
2121 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
2122 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
2123 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
2124
2125 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
2126 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
2127 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
2128 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
2129 package.  See also
2130 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
2131 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
2132 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
2133 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
2134
2135       </div>
2136       <div class="tags">
2137
2138
2139         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>.
2140
2141
2142       </div>
2143     </div>
2144     <div class="padding"></div>
2145
2146     <div class="entry">
2147       <div class="title">
2148         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
2149       </div>
2150       <div class="date">
2151         15th April 2014
2152       </div>
2153       <div class="body">
2154         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2155 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
2156 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
2157 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
2158 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
2159 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
2160
2161 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
2162 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
2163 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
2164 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
2165 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
2166 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
2167 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
2168
2169 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
2170 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
2171 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
2172 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
2173 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
2174 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
2175 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
2176 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
2177 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
2178 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
2179 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
2180 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
2181
2182 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
2183 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
2184 become root:</p>
2185
2186 <p><pre>
2187 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2188   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2189   u-boot-tools
2190 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2191   freedom-maker
2192 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2193 </pre></p>
2194
2195 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2196 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
2197 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
2198 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
2199 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
2200 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
2201 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
2202 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
2203
2204 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2205 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2206 the preseed values:</p>
2207
2208 <p><pre>
2209 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2210 </pre></p>
2211
2212 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
2213 it still work.</p>
2214
2215 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
2216 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
2217 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
2218 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
2219 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
2220 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
2221 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
2222
2223 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2224 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2225 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2226 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2227 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2228 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2229
2230       </div>
2231       <div class="tags">
2232
2233
2234         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2235
2236
2237       </div>
2238     </div>
2239     <div class="padding"></div>
2240
2241     <div class="entry">
2242       <div class="title">
2243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
2244       </div>
2245       <div class="date">
2246          9th April 2014
2247       </div>
2248       <div class="body">
2249         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
2250 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
2251 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
2252 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
2253 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
2254 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
2255 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
2256 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
2257 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
2258 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
2259 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
2260 have looked at a system called
2261 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
2262 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
2263
2264 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
2265 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
2266 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
2267 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
2268 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
2269 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
2270 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
2271 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
2272 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
2273 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
2274 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
2275 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
2276 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
2277
2278 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
2279 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
2280 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
2281 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
2282 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
2283 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
2284 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
2285 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
2286 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
2287 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
2288 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
2289 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
2290 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
2291 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
2292 account.</p>
2293
2294 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
2295 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
2296 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
2297 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
2298 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
2299 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
2300 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
2301
2302 <p><blockquote><pre>
2303 [s3c]
2304 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2305 backend-login: API-login
2306 backend-password: API-password
2307 fs-passphrase: local-password
2308 </pre></blockquote></p>
2309
2310 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
2311 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
2312 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
2313 details and password to create it:</p>
2314
2315 <p><blockquote><pre>
2316 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
2317 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2318   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2319 Enter backend login:
2320 Enter backend password:
2321 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
2322 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
2323 Enter encryption password:
2324 Confirm encryption password:
2325 Generating random encryption key...
2326 Creating metadata tables...
2327 Dumping metadata...
2328 ..objects..
2329 ..blocks..
2330 ..inodes..
2331 ..inode_blocks..
2332 ..symlink_targets..
2333 ..names..
2334 ..contents..
2335 ..ext_attributes..
2336 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2337 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
2338 # </pre></blockquote></p>
2339
2340 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
2341
2342 <p><blockquote><pre>
2343 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2344   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2345 Using 4 upload threads.
2346 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
2347 Reading metadata...
2348 ..objects..
2349 ..blocks..
2350 ..inodes..
2351 ..inode_blocks..
2352 ..symlink_targets..
2353 ..names..
2354 ..contents..
2355 ..ext_attributes..
2356 Mounting filesystem...
2357 # df -h /s3ql
2358 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
2359 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
2360 #
2361 </pre></blockquote></p>
2362
2363 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
2364 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
2365 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
2366 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
2367 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
2368 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
2369
2370 <p><blockquote><pre>
2371 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
2372 #
2373 </pre></blockquote></p>
2374
2375 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
2376 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
2377 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
2378 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
2379 file system:</p>
2380
2381 <p><blockquote><pre>
2382 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2383 Using cached metadata.
2384 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
2385 Checking DB integrity...
2386 Creating temporary extra indices...
2387 Checking lost+found...
2388 Checking cached objects...
2389 Checking names (refcounts)...
2390 Checking contents (names)...
2391 Checking contents (inodes)...
2392 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
2393 Checking objects (reference counts)...
2394 Checking objects (backend)...
2395 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
2396 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
2397 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
2398 Checking objects (sizes)...
2399 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
2400 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
2401 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
2402 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
2403 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
2404 Checking inodes (sizes)...
2405 Checking extended attributes (names)...
2406 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
2407 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
2408 Checking directory reachability...
2409 Checking unix conventions...
2410 Checking referential integrity...
2411 Dropping temporary indices...
2412 Backing up old metadata...
2413 Dumping metadata...
2414 ..objects..
2415 ..blocks..
2416 ..inodes..
2417 ..inode_blocks..
2418 ..symlink_targets..
2419 ..names..
2420 ..contents..
2421 ..ext_attributes..
2422 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2423 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
2424 #
2425 </pre></blockquote></p>
2426
2427 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
2428 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
2429 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
2430 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
2431 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
2432 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
2433 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
2434 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
2435 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
2436 working set.</p>
2437
2438 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
2439 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
2440 busy:</p>
2441
2442 <p><blockquote><pre>
2443 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2444   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2445 Using 8 upload threads.
2446 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
2447 #
2448 </pre></blockquote></p>
2449
2450 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
2451 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
2452 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
2453 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
2454 s3qlctrl:
2455
2456 <p><blockquote><pre>
2457 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
2458 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
2459 #
2460 </pre></blockquote></p>
2461
2462 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
2463 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
2464 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
2465 a report:</p>
2466
2467 <p><blockquote><pre>
2468 # s3qlstat /s3ql
2469 Directory entries:    9141
2470 Inodes:               9143
2471 Data blocks:          8851
2472 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
2473 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
2474 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
2475 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
2476 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
2477 #
2478 </pre></blockquote></p>
2479
2480 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
2481 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
2482 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
2483 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
2484 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
2485 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
2486 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
2487 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
2488 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
2489 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
2490 best.</p>
2491
2492 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
2493 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
2494 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
2495 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
2496 poster is titled
2497 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
2498 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
2499 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
2500 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
2501 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
2502
2503 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
2504 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
2505 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
2506 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
2507 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
2508 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
2509 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
2510 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
2511
2512 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
2513 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
2514 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
2515 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
2516 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
2517 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
2518 only read from it.</p>
2519
2520 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2521 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2522 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2523
2524       </div>
2525       <div class="tags">
2526
2527
2528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2529
2530
2531       </div>
2532     </div>
2533     <div class="padding"></div>
2534
2535     <div class="entry">
2536       <div class="title">
2537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
2538       </div>
2539       <div class="date">
2540         14th March 2014
2541       </div>
2542       <div class="body">
2543         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2544 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
2545 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
2546 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
2547 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
2548 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
2549 release (0.2).</p>
2550
2551 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
2552 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
2553 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
2554 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
2555 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
2556 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
2557 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
2558 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
2559 and build using
2560 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
2561 with a user with sudo access to become root:
2562
2563 <pre>
2564 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2565   freedom-maker
2566 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2567   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2568   u-boot-tools
2569 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2570 </pre>
2571
2572 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2573 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
2574 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
2575 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
2576 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
2577 kpartx call.</p>
2578
2579 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2580 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2581 the preseed values:</p>
2582
2583 <pre>
2584 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2585 </pre>
2586
2587 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
2588 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
2589 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
2590 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
2591 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
2592 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
2593
2594 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2595 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2596 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2597 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2598 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2599 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2600
2601       </div>
2602       <div class="tags">
2603
2604
2605         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2606
2607
2608       </div>
2609     </div>
2610     <div class="padding"></div>
2611
2612     <div class="entry">
2613       <div class="title">
2614         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
2615       </div>
2616       <div class="date">
2617         22nd February 2014
2618       </div>
2619       <div class="body">
2620         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
2621 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
2622 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
2623 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
2624 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
2625 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
2626 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
2627 proper home since then.</p>
2628
2629 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
2630 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
2631 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
2632 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
2633 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
2634
2635 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
2636 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
2637 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
2638 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
2639 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
2640 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
2641 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
2642 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
2643 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
2644
2645       </div>
2646       <div class="tags">
2647
2648
2649         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>.
2650
2651
2652       </div>
2653     </div>
2654     <div class="padding"></div>
2655
2656     <div class="entry">
2657       <div class="title">
2658         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
2659       </div>
2660       <div class="date">
2661          3rd February 2014
2662       </div>
2663       <div class="body">
2664         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
2665 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
2666 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
2667 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
2668 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
2669 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
2670 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
2671 <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>,
2672 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
2673
2674 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
2675 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
2676 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
2677 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
2678 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
2679 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
2680
2681 <p><blockquote><pre>
2682 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
2683 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
2684 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
2685 dhclient /dev/eth0
2686 </pre></blockquote></p>
2687
2688 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
2689 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
2690 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
2691
2692 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
2693 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
2694 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
2695 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
2696 side.</p>
2697
2698 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
2699 stuff:</p>
2700
2701 <p><blockquote><pre>
2702 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2703 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
2704 EOF
2705 apt-get update
2706 apt-get dist-upgrade
2707 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
2708     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
2709 update-alternatives --config runsystem
2710 </pre></blockquote></p>
2711
2712 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
2713 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
2714 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
2715 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
2716 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
2717 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
2718 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
2719 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
2720 ssh instead.
2721
2722 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
2723 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
2724 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
2725 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
2726 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
2727 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
2728
2729 <p><blockquote><pre>
2730 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2731 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
2732 EOF
2733 </pre></blockquote></p>
2734
2735 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
2736 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
2737 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
2738 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
2739
2740 <p><blockquote><pre>
2741 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
2742 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
2743 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
2744 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
2745 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
2746 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
2747 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
2748 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
2749 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
2750 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
2751 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
2752 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
2753 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
2754 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
2755 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
2756 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
2757 #
2758 </pre></blockquote></p>
2759
2760 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
2761 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
2762 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
2763 command line stuff.<p>
2764
2765       </div>
2766       <div class="tags">
2767
2768
2769         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2770
2771
2772       </div>
2773     </div>
2774     <div class="padding"></div>
2775
2776     <div class="entry">
2777       <div class="title">
2778         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
2779       </div>
2780       <div class="date">
2781         14th January 2014
2782       </div>
2783       <div class="body">
2784         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
2785 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
2786 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
2787 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
2788 the source.  The company behind it provide
2789 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
2790 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
2791 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
2792 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
2793 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
2794 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
2795 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
2796 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
2797 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
2798 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
2799 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
2800 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
2801 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
2802 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
2803 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
2804 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
2805 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
2806 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
2807 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
2808
2809 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
2810
2811 <ul>
2812
2813   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
2814   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
2815   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
2816
2817 </ul>
2818
2819 <p>You can
2820 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2821 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2822 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2823 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2824 include a test suite check.</p>
2825
2826       </div>
2827       <div class="tags">
2828
2829
2830         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2831
2832
2833       </div>
2834     </div>
2835     <div class="padding"></div>
2836
2837     <div class="entry">
2838       <div class="title">
2839         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
2840       </div>
2841       <div class="date">
2842         24th November 2013
2843       </div>
2844       <div class="body">
2845         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
2846 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
2847 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
2848 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
2849 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
2850 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
2851 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
2852 is working on.  I checked the
2853 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
2854 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
2855 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
2856 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
2857 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
2858 These are the release notes:</p>
2859
2860 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
2861
2862 <ul>
2863
2864   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
2865    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
2866    up.</li>
2867
2868   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
2869
2870   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
2871    Matthias Klose.</li>
2872
2873   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
2874    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
2875
2876   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
2877    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
2878    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
2879
2880 </ul>
2881
2882 <p>You can
2883 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2884 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2885 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2886 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2887 include a testsuite check.</p>
2888
2889       </div>
2890       <div class="tags">
2891
2892
2893         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2894
2895
2896       </div>
2897     </div>
2898     <div class="padding"></div>
2899
2900     <div class="entry">
2901       <div class="title">
2902         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
2903       </div>
2904       <div class="date">
2905          2nd November 2013
2906       </div>
2907       <div class="body">
2908         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
2909 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
2910 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
2911 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
2912 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
2913
2914 <p><pre>
2915 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
2916 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
2917 # Provides:          rsyslog
2918 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
2919 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
2920 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
2921 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
2922 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
2923 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
2924 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
2925 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
2926 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
2927 ### END INIT INFO
2928 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
2929 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
2930 </pre></p>
2931
2932 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
2933 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
2934 info/comments.</p>
2935
2936 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
2937 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
2938
2939 <p><pre>
2940 #!/bin/sh
2941
2942 # Define LSB log_* functions.
2943 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
2944 # and status_of_proc is working.
2945 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
2946
2947 #
2948 # Function that starts the daemon/service
2949
2950 #
2951 do_start()
2952 {
2953         # Return
2954         #   0 if daemon has been started
2955         #   1 if daemon was already running
2956         #   2 if daemon could not be started
2957         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
2958                 || return 1
2959         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
2960                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
2961                 || return 2
2962         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
2963         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
2964         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
2965 }
2966
2967 #
2968 # Function that stops the daemon/service
2969 #
2970 do_stop()
2971 {
2972         # Return
2973         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
2974         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
2975         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
2976         #   other if a failure occurred
2977         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2978         RETVAL="$?"
2979         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
2980         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
2981         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
2982         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
2983         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
2984         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
2985         # sleep for some time.
2986         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
2987         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
2988         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
2989         rm -f $PIDFILE
2990         return "$RETVAL"
2991 }
2992
2993 #
2994 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
2995 #
2996 do_reload() {
2997         #
2998         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
2999         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
3000         # then implement that here.
3001         #
3002         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
3003         return 0
3004 }
3005
3006 SCRIPTNAME=$1
3007 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
3008 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
3009 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
3010     script="$1"
3011     shift
3012     . $script
3013 else
3014     exit 0
3015 fi
3016
3017 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
3018 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
3019
3020 # Exit if the package is not installed
3021 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
3022
3023 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
3024 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
3025
3026 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
3027 . /lib/init/vars.sh
3028
3029 case "$1" in
3030   start)
3031         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
3032         do_start
3033         case "$?" in
3034                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
3035                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
3036         esac
3037         ;;
3038   stop)
3039         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
3040         do_stop
3041         case "$?" in
3042                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
3043                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
3044         esac
3045         ;;
3046   status)
3047         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
3048         ;;
3049   #reload|force-reload)
3050         #
3051         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
3052         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
3053         #
3054         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
3055         #do_reload
3056         #log_end_msg $?
3057         #;;
3058   restart|force-reload)
3059         #
3060         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
3061         # 'force-reload' alias
3062         #
3063         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
3064         do_stop
3065         case "$?" in
3066           0|1)
3067                 do_start
3068                 case "$?" in
3069                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
3070                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
3071                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
3072                 esac
3073                 ;;
3074           *)
3075                 # Failed to stop
3076                 log_end_msg 1
3077                 ;;
3078         esac
3079         ;;
3080   *)
3081         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
3082         exit 3
3083         ;;
3084 esac
3085
3086 :
3087 </pre></p>
3088
3089 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
3090 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
3091 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
3092 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
3093
3094 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
3095 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
3096 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
3097 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
3098 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
3099
3100       </div>
3101       <div class="tags">
3102
3103
3104         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3105
3106
3107       </div>
3108     </div>
3109     <div class="padding"></div>
3110
3111     <div class="entry">
3112       <div class="title">
3113         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
3114       </div>
3115       <div class="date">
3116          1st November 2013
3117       </div>
3118       <div class="body">
3119         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
3120 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
3121 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
3122 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
3123 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
3124 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
3125 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
3126 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
3127 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
3128 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
3129 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
3130 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
3131
3132 <p>The source is now available from
3133 <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>
3134
3135       </div>
3136       <div class="tags">
3137
3138
3139         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>.
3140
3141
3142       </div>
3143     </div>
3144     <div class="padding"></div>
3145
3146     <div class="entry">
3147       <div class="title">
3148         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
3149       </div>
3150       <div class="date">
3151         27th October 2013
3152       </div>
3153       <div class="body">
3154         <p>The
3155 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
3156 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
3157 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
3158 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
3159 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
3160 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
3161 of a plan to simplify the build system for
3162 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
3163 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
3164 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
3165 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
3166 Raspberry Pi.</p>
3167
3168 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
3169 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
3170 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
3171 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
3172 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
3173 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
3174 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
3175 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
3176 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
3177 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
3178 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
3179 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
3180 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
3181 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
3182 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
3183 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
3184 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
3185 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
3186 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
3187 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
3188 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
3189 available from
3190 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
3191 upstream project page</a>.</p>
3192
3193 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
3194 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
3195 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
3196 list:</p>
3197
3198 <p><pre>
3199 #!/bin/sh
3200 set -e # Exit on first error
3201 rootdir="$1"
3202 cd "$rootdir"
3203 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
3204 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
3205 EOF
3206 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
3207 # install a kernel somewhere too.
3208 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
3209     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
3210 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
3211 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
3212 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
3213 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
3214 </pre></p>
3215
3216 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
3217 to build the image:</p>
3218
3219 <pre>
3220 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
3221     --variant minbase \
3222     --arch armel \
3223     --distribution jessie \
3224     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
3225     --image test.img \
3226     --size 600M \
3227     --bootsize 64M \
3228     --boottype vfat \
3229     --log-level debug \
3230     --verbose \
3231     --no-kernel \
3232     --no-extlinux \
3233     --root-password raspberry \
3234     --hostname raspberrypi \
3235     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
3236     --customize `pwd`/customize \
3237     --package netbase \
3238     --package git-core \
3239     --package binutils \
3240     --package ca-certificates \
3241     --package wget \
3242     --package kmod
3243 </pre></p>
3244
3245 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
3246 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
3247 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
3248 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
3249 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
3250 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
3251 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
3252
3253 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
3254 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
3255 build dependency list.</p>
3256
3257 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
3258 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
3259 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
3260 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
3261
3262       </div>
3263       <div class="tags">
3264
3265
3266         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
3267
3268
3269       </div>
3270     </div>
3271     <div class="padding"></div>
3272
3273     <div class="entry">
3274       <div class="title">
3275         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
3276       </div>
3277       <div class="date">
3278         15th October 2013
3279       </div>
3280       <div class="body">
3281         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
3282 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
3283 these. :)</p>
3284
3285 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
3286 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
3287 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
3288 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
3289 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
3290 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
3291 hope you will to. :)</p>
3292
3293 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
3294 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
3295 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
3296 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
3297 donated.  Are you next?</p>
3298
3299 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
3300 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
3301 statement under the heading
3302 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
3303 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
3304 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
3305 too.</p>
3306
3307       </div>
3308       <div class="tags">
3309
3310
3311         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3312
3313
3314       </div>
3315     </div>
3316     <div class="padding"></div>
3317
3318     <div class="entry">
3319       <div class="title">
3320         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
3321       </div>
3322       <div class="date">
3323         27th September 2013
3324       </div>
3325       <div class="body">
3326         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
3327 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
3328 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
3329 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
3330
3331 <ul>
3332
3333 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
3334 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
3335
3336 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
3337 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
3338
3339 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
3340 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
3341 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
3342 (Youtube)</li>
3343
3344 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
3345 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
3346
3347 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
3348 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
3349
3350 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
3351 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
3352 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
3353
3354 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
3355 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
3356 (Youtube)</li>
3357
3358 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
3359 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
3360
3361 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
3362 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
3363
3364 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
3365 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
3366 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
3367
3368 </ul>
3369
3370 <p>A larger list is available from
3371 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
3372 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
3373
3374 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
3375 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
3376 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
3377 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
3378 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
3379 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
3380 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
3381 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
3382 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
3383 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3384 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3385
3386       </div>
3387       <div class="tags">
3388
3389
3390         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3391
3392
3393       </div>
3394     </div>
3395     <div class="padding"></div>
3396
3397     <div class="entry">
3398       <div class="title">
3399         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
3400       </div>
3401       <div class="date">
3402         10th September 2013
3403       </div>
3404       <div class="body">
3405         <p>I was introduced to the
3406 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
3407 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
3408 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
3409 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
3410 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
3411 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
3412 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
3413 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
3414
3415 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
3416 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
3417 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
3418 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
3419 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
3420
3421 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
3422 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
3423 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
3424 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
3425 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
3426 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
3427 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
3428 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
3429 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
3430 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
3431 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
3432 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
3433 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
3434 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
3435 missing in Debian).</p>
3436
3437 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
3438 scripts
3439 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
3440 and a administrative web interface
3441 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
3442 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
3443 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
3444 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
3445 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
3446 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
3447 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
3448 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
3449 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
3450 this is really working yet, see
3451 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
3452 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
3453 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
3454 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
3455 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
3456 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
3457 with lots of half baked features.</p>
3458
3459 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
3460 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
3461 at.</p>
3462
3463 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
3464
3465 <ol>
3466
3467 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
3468 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
3469 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
3470 to the Debian installer:<p>
3471 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
3472
3473 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
3474 install on.</li>
3475
3476 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
3477 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
3478
3479 </ol>
3480
3481 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
3482
3483 <ol>
3484
3485 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
3486 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
3487 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
3488 <pre>
3489 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
3490 </pre></li>
3491 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
3492 <pre>
3493 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
3494    apt-key add -
3495 apt-get update
3496 apt-get install freedombox-setup
3497 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
3498 </pre></li>
3499 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
3500
3501 </ol>
3502
3503 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
3504 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
3505 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
3506 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
3507 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
3508
3509 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
3510 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
3511 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
3512 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
3513
3514 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
3515 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
3516 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
3517 irc.debian.org and the
3518 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
3519 mailing list</a>.</p>
3520
3521 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
3522 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
3523 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
3524 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
3525 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
3526 default password is 'secret'.</p>
3527
3528       </div>
3529       <div class="tags">
3530
3531
3532         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
3533
3534
3535       </div>
3536     </div>
3537     <div class="padding"></div>
3538
3539     <div class="entry">
3540       <div class="title">
3541         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
3542       </div>
3543       <div class="date">
3544         18th August 2013
3545       </div>
3546       <div class="body">
3547         <p>Earlier, I reported about
3548 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
3549 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
3550 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
3551 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
3552 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
3553 currently on the disk.</p>
3554
3555 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
3556 <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>
3557 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
3558 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
3559 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
3560 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
3561 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
3562 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
3563 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
3564 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
3565 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
3566 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
3567 the broken disks.</p>
3568
3569       </div>
3570       <div class="tags">
3571
3572
3573         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>.
3574
3575
3576       </div>
3577     </div>
3578     <div class="padding"></div>
3579
3580     <div class="entry">
3581       <div class="title">
3582         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
3583       </div>
3584       <div class="date">
3585         17th July 2013
3586       </div>
3587       <div class="body">
3588         <p>Today I switched to
3589 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
3590 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
3591 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
3592 <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
3593 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
3594 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
3595 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
3596 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
3597 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
3598 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
3599 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
3600 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
3601 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
3602 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
3603 station from now on.</p>
3604
3605 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
3606 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
3607 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
3608 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
3609 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
3610 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
3611 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
3612 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
3613 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
3614 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
3615 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
3616 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
3617
3618 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
3619 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
3620 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
3621 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
3622 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
3623 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
3624 parameters are tuned:</p>
3625
3626 <ul>
3627
3628 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
3629     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
3630
3631 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
3632     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
3633     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
3634
3635 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
3636     systems.</li>
3637
3638 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
3639     /etc/fstab.</li>
3640
3641 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
3642
3643 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
3644     cron.daily).</li>
3645
3646 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
3647     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
3648
3649 </ul>
3650
3651 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
3652 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
3653 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
3654 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
3655 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
3656 from getting the data on the disk (see
3657 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
3658 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
3659 right thing to do.</p>
3660
3661 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
3662 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
3663 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
3664
3665 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
3666 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
3667 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
3668 instead of during my work.</p>
3669
3670 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
3671 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
3672
3673 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
3674 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
3675 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
3676
3677 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
3678 there.</p>
3679
3680 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
3681 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
3682 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
3683 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
3684 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
3685 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
3686 back.</p>
3687
3688       </div>
3689       <div class="tags">
3690
3691
3692         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>.
3693
3694
3695       </div>
3696     </div>
3697     <div class="padding"></div>
3698
3699     <div class="entry">
3700       <div class="title">
3701         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
3702       </div>
3703       <div class="date">
3704         10th July 2013
3705       </div>
3706       <div class="body">
3707         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
3708 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
3709 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
3710 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
3711 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
3712 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
3713 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
3714 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
3715
3716 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
3717 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
3718 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
3719 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
3720 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
3721 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
3722 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
3723 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
3724 lock up when I download a new
3725 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
3726 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
3727 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
3728
3729 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3730 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
3731 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3732 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
3733 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3734 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3735
3736 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3737 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
3738 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3739 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
3740 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3741 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3742
3743 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
3744 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
3745 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
3746 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
3747 exist).</p>
3748
3749       </div>
3750       <div class="tags">
3751
3752
3753         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>.
3754
3755
3756       </div>
3757     </div>
3758     <div class="padding"></div>
3759
3760     <div class="entry">
3761       <div class="title">
3762         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
3763       </div>
3764       <div class="date">
3765          9th July 2013
3766       </div>
3767       <div class="body">
3768         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
3769 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
3770 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
3771 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
3772 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3773 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
3774 Bitraf</a>.</p>
3775
3776 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
3777 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
3778 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
3779 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
3780 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
3781
3782       </div>
3783       <div class="tags">
3784
3785
3786         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
3787
3788
3789       </div>
3790     </div>
3791     <div class="padding"></div>
3792
3793     <div class="entry">
3794       <div class="title">
3795         <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>
3796       </div>
3797       <div class="date">
3798          5th July 2013
3799       </div>
3800       <div class="body">
3801         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
3802 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
3803 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
3804 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
3805 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
3806 ended up picking a
3807 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
3808 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
3809 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
3810 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
3811 on that below.</p>
3812
3813 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3814 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3815 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3816 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3817 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3818 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
3819 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
3820 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
3821 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
3822
3823 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
3824 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
3825 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
3826 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
3827 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
3828 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
3829 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
3830
3831 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
3832 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
3833
3834 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
3835 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
3836 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
3837 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
3838 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
3839 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
3840 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
3841 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
3842 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
3843 kernel developers as
3844 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
3845 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
3846 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
3847 Lenovo forums, both for
3848 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
3849 2012-11-10</a> and for
3850 <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
3851 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
3852 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
3853 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
3854 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
3855 There is even a
3856 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
3857 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
3858 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
3859
3860 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
3861 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
3862 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
3863 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
3864 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
3865 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
3866 fixed. :)</p>
3867
3868       </div>
3869       <div class="tags">
3870
3871
3872         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>.
3873
3874
3875       </div>
3876     </div>
3877     <div class="padding"></div>
3878
3879     <div class="entry">
3880       <div class="title">
3881         <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>
3882       </div>
3883       <div class="date">
3884          4th July 2013
3885       </div>
3886       <div class="body">
3887         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
3888 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
3889 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
3890 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
3891 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
3892 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
3893 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
3894 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
3895 with an expencive door stop.</p>
3896
3897 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3898 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3899 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3900 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3901 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3902 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
3903 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
3904
3905 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
3906 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
3907 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
3908 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
3909 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
3910 new laptop now. :)</p>
3911
3912 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
3913
3914       </div>
3915       <div class="tags">
3916
3917
3918         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>.
3919
3920
3921       </div>
3922     </div>
3923     <div class="padding"></div>
3924
3925     <div class="entry">
3926       <div class="title">
3927         <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>
3928       </div>
3929       <div class="date">
3930         25th June 2013
3931       </div>
3932       <div class="body">
3933         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
3934 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
3935 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
3936 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
3937 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
3938 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
3939 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
3940 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
3941 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
3942 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
3943 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
3944
3945 <p><pre>
3946 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3947 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
3948 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
3949 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
3950 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
3951 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
3952 firmware-ipw2x00
3953 firmware-ipw2x00
3954 Preconfiguring packages ...
3955 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
3956 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
3957 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
3958 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
3959 #
3960 </pre></p>
3961
3962 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
3963 printed instead:</p>
3964
3965 <p><pre>
3966 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3967 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
3968 #
3969 </pre></p>
3970
3971 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
3972 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
3973
3974 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
3975 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
3976 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
3977 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
3978 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
3979 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
3980 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
3981 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
3982 machine.</p>
3983
3984 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
3985 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
3986 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
3987 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
3988 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
3989 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
3990
3991       </div>
3992       <div class="tags">
3993
3994
3995         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>.
3996
3997
3998       </div>
3999     </div>
4000     <div class="padding"></div>
4001
4002     <div class="entry">
4003       <div class="title">
4004         <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>
4005       </div>
4006       <div class="date">
4007         11th June 2013
4008       </div>
4009       <div class="body">
4010         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
4011 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
4012 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
4013 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
4014 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
4015 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
4016 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
4017 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
4018 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
4019 i915 driver used by the
4020 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
4021 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
4022
4023 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
4024 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
4025 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
4026 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
4027 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
4028
4029 <pre>
4030 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
4031 update-initramfs -u -k all
4032 </pre>
4033
4034 <p>Since March 2012 there is
4035 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
4036 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
4037 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
4038 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
4039 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
4040 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
4041 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
4042 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
4043 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
4044 number.</p>
4045
4046 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
4047 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
4048
4049 <p><pre>
4050 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
4051     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
4052     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
4053  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
4054  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
4055     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
4056  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
4057     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
4058  Latency: 0
4059  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
4060  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
4061  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
4062  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
4063  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
4064  Capabilities: <access denied>
4065  Kernel driver in use: i915
4066 </pre></p>
4067
4068 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
4069
4070 <p><pre>
4071 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
4072        ...
4073         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
4074         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
4075        ...
4076 }
4077 </pre></p>
4078
4079 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
4080 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
4081 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
4082 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
4083 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
4084 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
4085 yet shown up in
4086 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
4087 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
4088 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
4089 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
4090 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
4091 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
4092
4093 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
4094 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
4095 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
4096 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
4097 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
4098 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
4099 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
4100 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
4101 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
4102 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
4103 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
4104 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
4105
4106 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
4107 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
4108 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
4109 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
4110 backlight.</p>
4111
4112       </div>
4113       <div class="tags">
4114
4115
4116         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>.
4117
4118
4119       </div>
4120     </div>
4121     <div class="padding"></div>
4122
4123     <div class="entry">
4124       <div class="title">
4125         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
4126       </div>
4127       <div class="date">
4128         27th May 2013
4129       </div>
4130       <div class="body">
4131         <p>Two days ago, I asked
4132 <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
4133 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
4134 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
4135 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
4136 and Windows 8.</p>
4137
4138 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
4139 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
4140 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
4141 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
4142 enough to tell.</p>
4143
4144 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
4145 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
4146 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
4147 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
4148 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
4149 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
4150 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
4151 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
4152 to follow.</p>
4153
4154 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
4155 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
4156 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
4157 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
4158 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
4159 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
4160 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
4161 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
4162
4163 <p>I've updated the
4164 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
4165 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
4166 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
4167 machine.</p>
4168
4169 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
4170 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
4171
4172       </div>
4173       <div class="tags">
4174
4175
4176         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>.
4177
4178
4179       </div>
4180     </div>
4181     <div class="padding"></div>
4182
4183     <div class="entry">
4184       <div class="title">
4185         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
4186       </div>
4187       <div class="date">
4188         25th May 2013
4189       </div>
4190       <div class="body">
4191         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
4192 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
4193 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
4194 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
4195 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
4196 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
4197
4198 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
4199 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
4200 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
4201 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
4202 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
4203 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
4204 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
4205 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
4206 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
4207 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
4208
4209 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
4210 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
4211 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
4212 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
4213 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
4214 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
4215
4216 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
4217 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
4218 on new Laptops?</p>
4219
4220       </div>
4221       <div class="tags">
4222
4223
4224         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>.
4225
4226
4227       </div>
4228     </div>
4229     <div class="padding"></div>
4230
4231     <div class="entry">
4232       <div class="title">
4233         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
4234       </div>
4235       <div class="date">
4236         17th May 2013
4237       </div>
4238       <div class="body">
4239         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
4240 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
4241 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
4242 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
4243 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
4244 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
4245 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
4246 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
4247 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
4248 donate some money</a>.
4249
4250 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
4251 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
4252 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
4253 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
4254 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
4255
4256 <p>The script,
4257 <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/>
4258 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
4259 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
4260 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
4261
4262 <ol>
4263
4264 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
4265 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
4266 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
4267     our configuration.</li>
4268 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
4269     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
4270     according to the profile specified in the config above,
4271     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
4272 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
4273     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
4274 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
4275
4276 </ol>
4277
4278 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
4279 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
4280 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
4281 the needed packages.</p>
4282
4283 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
4284 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
4285 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
4286 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
4287 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
4288 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
4289
4290 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
4291 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
4292 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
4293
4294 <p><pre>
4295 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
4296 DESKTOP="lxde"
4297 </pre></p>
4298
4299 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
4300 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
4301 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
4302 boot.</p>
4303
4304       </div>
4305       <div class="tags">
4306
4307
4308         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4309
4310
4311       </div>
4312     </div>
4313     <div class="padding"></div>
4314
4315     <div class="entry">
4316       <div class="title">
4317         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
4318       </div>
4319       <div class="date">
4320         11th May 2013
4321       </div>
4322       <div class="body">
4323         <P>In January,
4324 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
4325 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
4326 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
4327 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
4328 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
4329 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
4330 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
4331 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
4332 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
4333 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
4334 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
4335 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
4336
4337 <p><table>
4338 <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>
4339 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
4340 <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>
4341 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
4342 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
4343 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
4344 <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>
4345 <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>
4346 <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>
4347 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
4348 </table></p>
4349
4350 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
4351 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
4352 available in experimental.</p>
4353
4354 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
4355 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
4356 for LEGO designers.</p>
4357
4358       </div>
4359       <div class="tags">
4360
4361
4362         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
4363
4364
4365       </div>
4366     </div>
4367     <div class="padding"></div>
4368
4369     <div class="entry">
4370       <div class="title">
4371         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
4372       </div>
4373       <div class="date">
4374          5th May 2013
4375       </div>
4376       <div class="body">
4377         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
4378 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
4379 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
4380 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
4381 soon.</p>
4382
4383 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
4384 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
4385 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
4386 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
4387 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
4388 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
4389 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
4390 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
4391 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
4392 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
4393 Edu.</a>
4394
4395 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
4396 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
4397 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
4398 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
4399 follow.<p>
4400
4401       </div>
4402       <div class="tags">
4403
4404
4405         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4406
4407
4408       </div>
4409     </div>
4410     <div class="padding"></div>
4411
4412     <div class="entry">
4413       <div class="title">
4414         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
4415       </div>
4416       <div class="date">
4417          3rd April 2013
4418       </div>
4419       <div class="body">
4420         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
4421 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
4422 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
4423 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
4424
4425 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
4426 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
4427 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
4428 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
4429 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
4430 BTS. :)</p>
4431
4432       </div>
4433       <div class="tags">
4434
4435
4436         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>.
4437
4438
4439       </div>
4440     </div>
4441     <div class="padding"></div>
4442
4443     <div class="entry">
4444       <div class="title">
4445         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
4446       </div>
4447       <div class="date">
4448          2nd February 2013
4449       </div>
4450       <div class="body">
4451         <p>My
4452 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
4453 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
4454 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
4455 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
4456 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
4457 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
4458 version too.</p>
4459
4460 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
4461 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
4462 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
4463 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
4464 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
4465 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
4466 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
4467 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
4468
4469 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
4470 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
4471 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
4472 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
4473 it. :)</p>
4474
4475 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4476 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4477 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4478
4479       </div>
4480       <div class="tags">
4481
4482
4483         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4484
4485
4486       </div>
4487     </div>
4488     <div class="padding"></div>
4489
4490     <div class="entry">
4491       <div class="title">
4492         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
4493       </div>
4494       <div class="date">
4495         22nd January 2013
4496       </div>
4497       <div class="body">
4498         <p>Yesterday, I
4499 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
4500 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
4501 pluggable hardware devices, which I
4502 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
4503 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
4504 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
4505 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
4506 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
4507 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
4508 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
4509 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
4510 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
4511 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
4512
4513 <pre>
4514 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
4515 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
4516 </pre>
4517
4518 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
4519 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
4520 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
4521 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
4522
4523 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
4524 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
4525 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
4526 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
4527 word.</p>
4528
4529 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
4530 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
4531 process.</p>
4532
4533 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
4534 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
4535
4536       </div>
4537       <div class="tags">
4538
4539
4540         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>.
4541
4542
4543       </div>
4544     </div>
4545     <div class="padding"></div>
4546
4547     <div class="entry">
4548       <div class="title">
4549         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
4550       </div>
4551       <div class="date">
4552         21st January 2013
4553       </div>
4554       <div class="body">
4555         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
4556 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
4557 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
4558 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
4559 it, fetch the
4560 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
4561 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
4562 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
4563 autostart script.</p>
4564
4565 <p>The design is simple:</p>
4566
4567 <ul>
4568
4569 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
4570 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
4571
4572 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
4573 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
4574 initially did.</li>
4575
4576 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
4577 the APT database, a database
4578 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
4579 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
4580
4581 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
4582 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
4583 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
4584 package or packages.</li>
4585
4586 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
4587 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
4588
4589 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
4590 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
4591
4592 </ul>
4593
4594 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
4595 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
4596 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
4597 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
4598
4599 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
4600 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
4601 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
4602 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
4603 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
4604
4605 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
4606 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
4607 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
4608 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
4609 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
4610 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
4611 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
4612 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
4613
4614 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
4615 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
4616 '<tt>svn checkout
4617 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
4618 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
4619 devscripts package.</p>
4620
4621 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
4622 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
4623 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
4624 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
4625 instructions</a> for details.</p>
4626
4627       </div>
4628       <div class="tags">
4629
4630
4631         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>.
4632
4633
4634       </div>
4635     </div>
4636     <div class="padding"></div>
4637
4638     <div class="entry">
4639       <div class="title">
4640         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
4641       </div>
4642       <div class="date">
4643         19th January 2013
4644       </div>
4645       <div class="body">
4646         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
4647 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
4648 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
4649 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
4650 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
4651 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
4652 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
4653 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
4654 not a durable solution.
4655
4656 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
4657 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
4658
4659 <ul>
4660
4661 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
4662   than A4).</li>
4663 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
4664 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
4665 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
4666 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
4667 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
4668 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
4669 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
4670 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
4671 size).</li>
4672 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
4673   X.org packages.</li>
4674 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
4675   the time).
4676
4677 </ul>
4678
4679 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
4680 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
4681 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
4682 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
4683 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
4684 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
4685 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
4686 still be useful.</p>
4687
4688 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
4689 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
4690 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
4691 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
4692 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
4693 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
4694
4695       </div>
4696       <div class="tags">
4697
4698
4699         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>.
4700
4701
4702       </div>
4703     </div>
4704     <div class="padding"></div>
4705
4706     <div class="entry">
4707       <div class="title">
4708         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
4709       </div>
4710       <div class="date">
4711         18th January 2013
4712       </div>
4713       <div class="body">
4714         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
4715 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
4716 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
4717 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
4718 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
4719 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
4720 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
4721
4722 <pre>
4723 #!/usr/bin/python
4724 import sys
4725 import apt
4726 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4727     cache = apt.Cache()
4728     cache.open(None)
4729     thepkgs = []
4730     for pkg in cache:
4731         version = pkg.candidate
4732         if version is None:
4733             version = pkg.installed
4734         if version is None:
4735             continue
4736         record = version.record
4737         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
4738             continue
4739         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
4740         for t in mime_types:
4741             t = t.rstrip().strip()
4742             if t == mimetype:
4743                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
4744     return thepkgs
4745 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
4746 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
4747     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
4748 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
4749 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4750     print "  %s" %pkg
4751 </pre>
4752
4753 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
4754
4755 <pre>
4756 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
4757 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
4758   gecko-mediaplayer
4759 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
4760 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
4761   browser-plugin-gnash
4762 %
4763 </pre>
4764
4765 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
4766 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
4767 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
4768 anyone working on adding it?</p>
4769
4770 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
4771 request for icweasel support for this feature is
4772 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
4773 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
4774 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
4775 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
4776
4777       </div>
4778       <div class="tags">
4779
4780
4781         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>.
4782
4783
4784       </div>
4785     </div>
4786     <div class="padding"></div>
4787
4788     <div class="entry">
4789       <div class="title">
4790         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
4791       </div>
4792       <div class="date">
4793         16th January 2013
4794       </div>
4795       <div class="body">
4796         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
4797 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
4798 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
4799 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
4800 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
4801 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
4802 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
4803 downloaded by the browser.</p>
4804
4805 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
4806 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
4807 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
4808 can be found on the
4809 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
4810 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
4811 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
4812 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
4813 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
4814
4815 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
4816
4817 <pre>
4818   count MIME type
4819   ----- -----------------------
4820      32 text/plain
4821      30 audio/mpeg
4822      29 image/png
4823      28 image/jpeg
4824      27 application/ogg
4825      26 audio/x-mp3
4826      25 image/tiff
4827      25 image/gif
4828      22 image/bmp
4829      22 audio/x-wav
4830      20 audio/x-flac
4831      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4832      18 video/x-ms-asf
4833      18 audio/x-musepack
4834      18 audio/x-mpeg
4835      18 application/x-ogg
4836      17 video/mpeg
4837      17 audio/x-scpls
4838      17 audio/ogg
4839      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4840 </pre>
4841
4842 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
4843
4844 <pre>
4845   count MIME type
4846   ----- -----------------------
4847      33 text/plain
4848      32 image/png
4849      32 image/jpeg
4850      29 audio/mpeg
4851      27 image/gif
4852      26 image/tiff
4853      26 application/ogg
4854      25 audio/x-mp3
4855      22 image/bmp
4856      21 audio/x-wav
4857      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4858      19 audio/x-mpeg
4859      18 video/mpeg
4860      18 audio/x-scpls
4861      18 audio/x-flac
4862      18 application/x-ogg
4863      17 video/x-ms-asf
4864      17 text/html
4865      17 audio/x-musepack
4866      16 image/x-xbitmap
4867 </pre>
4868
4869 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
4870
4871 <pre>
4872   count MIME type
4873   ----- -----------------------
4874      31 text/plain
4875      31 image/png
4876      31 image/jpeg
4877      29 audio/mpeg
4878      28 application/ogg
4879      27 image/gif
4880      26 image/tiff
4881      26 audio/x-mp3
4882      23 audio/x-wav
4883      22 image/bmp
4884      21 audio/x-flac
4885      20 audio/x-mpegurl
4886      19 audio/x-mpeg
4887      18 video/x-ms-asf
4888      18 video/mpeg
4889      18 audio/x-scpls
4890      18 application/x-ogg
4891      17 audio/x-musepack
4892      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4893      16 video/x-msvideo
4894 </pre>
4895
4896 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
4897 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
4898 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
4899 issues.</p>
4900
4901 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
4902 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
4903
4904       </div>
4905       <div class="tags">
4906
4907
4908         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>.
4909
4910
4911       </div>
4912     </div>
4913     <div class="padding"></div>
4914
4915     <div class="entry">
4916       <div class="title">
4917         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
4918       </div>
4919       <div class="date">
4920         15th January 2013
4921       </div>
4922       <div class="body">
4923         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
4924 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
4925 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
4926 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
4927 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
4928 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
4929 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
4930 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
4931 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
4932 packages.</p>
4933
4934 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
4935 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
4936 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
4937 modalias.</p>
4938
4939 <p><blockquote>
4940 Package: package-name
4941 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
4942 </blockquote></p>
4943
4944 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
4945 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
4946
4947 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
4948 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
4949
4950 <p><blockquote>
4951 Package: cheese
4952 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
4953 </blockquote></p>
4954
4955 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
4956 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
4957
4958 <p><blockquote>
4959 Package: pcmciautils
4960 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
4961 </blockquote></p>
4962
4963 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
4964 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
4965
4966 <p><blockquote>
4967 Package: colorhug-client
4968 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
4969 </blockquote></p>
4970
4971 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
4972 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
4973 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
4974
4975 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
4976 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
4977 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
4978 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
4979 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
4980 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
4981 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
4982 Raring.</p>
4983
4984 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
4985 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
4986 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
4987 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
4988 try the
4989 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
4990 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
4991 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
4992 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
4993
4994 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
4995 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
4996
4997 <p><blockquote>
4998 % ./hw-support-lookup
4999 <br>yubikey-personalization
5000 <br>%
5001 </blockquote></p>
5002
5003 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
5004 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
5005
5006 <p><blockquote>
5007 % ./hw-support-lookup
5008 <br>pcmciautils
5009 <br>%
5010 </blockquote></p>
5011
5012 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
5013 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
5014 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
5015
5016 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
5017 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
5018 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
5019 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
5020 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
5021 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
5022 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
5023 see if it work.</p>
5024
5025 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
5026 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
5027 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
5028 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
5029
5030       </div>
5031       <div class="tags">
5032
5033
5034         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>.
5035
5036
5037       </div>
5038     </div>
5039     <div class="padding"></div>
5040
5041     <div class="entry">
5042       <div class="title">
5043         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
5044       </div>
5045       <div class="date">
5046         14th January 2013
5047       </div>
5048       <div class="body">
5049         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
5050 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
5051 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
5052 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
5053 in
5054 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
5055 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
5056
5057 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
5058
5059 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
5060 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
5061 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
5062 &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;,
5063 &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
5064 &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;.
5065
5066 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
5067 this shell script:</p>
5068
5069 <pre>
5070 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
5071 </pre>
5072
5073 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
5074 using modinfo:</p>
5075
5076 <pre>
5077 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
5078 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
5079 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
5080 %
5081 </pre>
5082
5083 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
5084
5085 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
5086 Bridge memory controller:</p>
5087
5088 <p><blockquote>
5089 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
5090 </blockquote></p>
5091
5092 <p>This represent these values:</p>
5093
5094 <pre>
5095  v   00008086  (vendor)
5096  d   00002770  (device)
5097  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
5098  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
5099  bc  06        (bus class)
5100  sc  00        (bus subclass)
5101  i   00        (interface)
5102 </pre>
5103
5104 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
5105 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
5106 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
5107 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
5108
5109 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
5110 means.</p>
5111
5112 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
5113
5114 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
5115 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
5116
5117 <p><blockquote>
5118 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
5119 </blockquote></p>
5120
5121 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
5122
5123 <pre>
5124  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
5125  p    0001  (device product)
5126  d    0206  (bcddevice)
5127  dc     09  (device class)
5128  dsc    00  (device subclass)
5129  dp     00  (device protocol)
5130  ic     09  (interface class)
5131  isc    00  (interface subclass)
5132  ip     00  (interface protocol)
5133 </pre>
5134
5135 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
5136 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
5137 these alias entries show up:</p>
5138
5139 <p><blockquote>
5140 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
5141 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
5142 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
5143 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
5144 </blockquote></p>
5145
5146 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
5147 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
5148 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
5149
5150 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
5151
5152 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
5153 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
5154
5155 <p><blockquote>
5156 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
5157 </blockquote></p>
5158
5159 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
5160
5161 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
5162
5163 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
5164 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
5165 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
5166
5167 <p><blockquote>
5168 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
5169 </blockquote></p>
5170
5171 <p>The values present are</p>
5172
5173 <pre>
5174  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
5175  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
5176  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
5177  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
5178  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
5179  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
5180  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
5181  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
5182  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
5183  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
5184  ct   10             (chassis type)
5185  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
5186 </pre>
5187
5188 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
5189 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
5190
5191 <pre>
5192   3 Desktop
5193   4 Low Profile Desktop
5194   5 Pizza Box
5195   6 Mini Tower
5196   7 Tower
5197   8 Portable
5198   9 Laptop
5199  10 Notebook
5200  11 Hand Held
5201  12 Docking Station
5202  13 All In One
5203  14 Sub Notebook
5204  15 Space-saving
5205  16 Lunch Box
5206  17 Main Server Chassis
5207  18 Expansion Chassis
5208  19 Sub Chassis
5209  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
5210  21 Peripheral Chassis
5211  22 RAID Chassis
5212  23 Rack Mount Chassis
5213  24 Sealed-case PC
5214  25 Multi-system
5215  26 CompactPCI
5216  27 AdvancedTCA
5217  28 Blade
5218  29 Blade Enclosing
5219 </pre>
5220
5221 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
5222 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
5223 claim it is a desktop.</p>
5224
5225 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
5226
5227 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
5228 test machine:</p>
5229
5230 <p><blockquote>
5231 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
5232 </blockquote></p>
5233
5234 <p>The values present are</p>
5235
5236 <pre>
5237   ty  01  (type)
5238   pr  00  (prototype)
5239   id  00  (id)
5240   ex  00  (extra)
5241 </pre>
5242
5243 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
5244 the valid values are.</p>
5245
5246 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
5247
5248 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
5249 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
5250 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
5251 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
5252 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
5253 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
5254 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
5255
5256 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
5257
5258 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
5259 one can use the following shell script:</p>
5260
5261 <pre>
5262   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
5263     echo "$id" ; \
5264     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
5265   done
5266 </pre>
5267
5268 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
5269 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
5270
5271 <pre>
5272   acpi:ACPI0003:
5273     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
5274   acpi:device:
5275   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
5276   acpi:IBM0068:
5277     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
5278     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
5279     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
5280     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
5281   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
5282     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
5283     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
5284     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
5285   [...]
5286 </pre>
5287
5288 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
5289 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
5290 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
5291 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
5292
5293 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
5294 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
5295 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
5296
5297       </div>
5298       <div class="tags">
5299
5300
5301         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>.
5302
5303
5304       </div>
5305     </div>
5306     <div class="padding"></div>
5307
5308     <div class="entry">
5309       <div class="title">
5310         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
5311       </div>
5312       <div class="date">
5313         10th January 2013
5314       </div>
5315       <div class="body">
5316         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
5317 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
5318 Launcher and updated the Debian package
5319 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
5320 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
5321 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
5322 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
5323 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
5324 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
5325 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
5326 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
5327 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
5328 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
5329 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
5330 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
5331 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
5332 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
5333 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
5334
5335       </div>
5336       <div class="tags">
5337
5338
5339         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
5340
5341
5342       </div>
5343     </div>
5344     <div class="padding"></div>
5345
5346     <div class="entry">
5347       <div class="title">
5348         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
5349       </div>
5350       <div class="date">
5351          9th January 2013
5352       </div>
5353       <div class="body">
5354         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
5355 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
5356 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
5357 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
5358 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
5359 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
5360 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
5361 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
5362 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
5363 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
5364 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
5365
5366 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
5367 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
5368 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
5369 simple:
5370
5371 <ul>
5372
5373 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
5374   starting when a user log in.</li>
5375
5376 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
5377   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
5378
5379 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
5380   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
5381   packages.</li>
5382
5383 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
5384   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
5385
5386 </ul>
5387
5388 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
5389 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
5390 discover database to find packages and
5391 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
5392 packages.</p>
5393
5394 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
5395 draft package is now checked into
5396 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
5397 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
5398 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
5399 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
5400 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
5401 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
5402 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
5403 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
5404 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
5405 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
5406 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
5407 because of the freeze).</p>
5408
5409 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
5410 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
5411 inserted):</p>
5412
5413 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
5414
5415 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
5416 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
5417 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
5418
5419 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
5420 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
5421 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
5422 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
5423 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
5424 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
5425 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
5426
5427 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
5428 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
5429 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
5430 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
5431 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
5432 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
5433 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
5434 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
5435 not be installed?</p>
5436
5437 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
5438 please send me an email. :)</p>
5439
5440       </div>
5441       <div class="tags">
5442
5443
5444         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>.
5445
5446
5447       </div>
5448     </div>
5449     <div class="padding"></div>
5450
5451     <div class="entry">
5452       <div class="title">
5453         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
5454       </div>
5455       <div class="date">
5456          2nd January 2013
5457       </div>
5458       <div class="body">
5459         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
5460 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
5461 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
5462 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
5463 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
5464 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
5465 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
5466 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
5467 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
5468 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
5469
5470 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
5471 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
5472 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
5473
5474       </div>
5475       <div class="tags">
5476
5477
5478         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
5479
5480
5481       </div>
5482     </div>
5483     <div class="padding"></div>
5484
5485     <div class="entry">
5486       <div class="title">
5487         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
5488       </div>
5489       <div class="date">
5490         25th December 2012
5491       </div>
5492       <div class="body">
5493         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
5494 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
5495
5496 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
5497 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
5498 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
5499 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
5500 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
5501 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
5502 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
5503 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
5504 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
5505 name.</p>
5506
5507 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
5508 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
5509 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
5510
5511 <blockquote><pre>
5512 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
5513 cd bitcoin
5514 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
5515 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
5516 </pre></blockquote>
5517
5518 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
5519 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
5520 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
5521 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
5522 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
5523 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
5524 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
5525 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
5526 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
5527
5528 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5529 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5530 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5531
5532       </div>
5533       <div class="tags">
5534
5535
5536         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5537
5538
5539       </div>
5540     </div>
5541     <div class="padding"></div>
5542
5543     <div class="entry">
5544       <div class="title">
5545         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
5546       </div>
5547       <div class="date">
5548         21st December 2012
5549       </div>
5550       <div class="body">
5551         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
5552 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
5553 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
5554 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
5555 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
5556 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
5557 is now maintained by a
5558 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
5559 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
5560 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
5561 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
5562 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
5563 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
5564 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
5565 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
5566 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
5567 Corallo in a
5568 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
5569 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
5570 Debian package.</p>
5571
5572 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
5573 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
5574 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
5575 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
5576 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
5577 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
5578 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
5579 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
5580 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
5581 new version to unstable.
5582
5583 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
5584 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
5585 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
5586 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
5587 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
5588 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
5589 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
5590 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
5591 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
5592 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
5593 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
5594 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
5595 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
5596 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
5597 have not tested them.</p>
5598
5599 <p>My
5600 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
5601 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
5602 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
5603 years ago, as can be
5604 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
5605 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
5606 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
5607 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
5608 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
5609 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
5610 the same address as last time,
5611 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5612
5613       </div>
5614       <div class="tags">
5615
5616
5617         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5618
5619
5620       </div>
5621     </div>
5622     <div class="padding"></div>
5623
5624     <div class="entry">
5625       <div class="title">
5626         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
5627       </div>
5628       <div class="date">
5629          7th September 2012
5630       </div>
5631       <div class="body">
5632         <p>As I
5633 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
5634 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
5635 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
5636 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
5637 repository for the project</a>.</p>
5638
5639 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
5640 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
5641 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
5642 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
5643
5644 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
5645 PostScript formats at
5646 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
5647 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
5648
5649       </div>
5650       <div class="tags">
5651
5652
5653         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
5654
5655
5656       </div>
5657     </div>
5658     <div class="padding"></div>
5659
5660     <div class="entry">
5661       <div class="title">
5662         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
5663       </div>
5664       <div class="date">
5665         16th August 2012
5666       </div>
5667       <div class="body">
5668         <p>I dag fyller
5669 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
5670 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
5671 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
5672
5673       </div>
5674       <div class="tags">
5675
5676
5677         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
5678
5679
5680       </div>
5681     </div>
5682     <div class="padding"></div>
5683
5684     <div class="entry">
5685       <div class="title">
5686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
5687       </div>
5688       <div class="date">
5689         24th June 2012
5690       </div>
5691       <div class="body">
5692         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
5693 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
5694 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
5695 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
5696 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
5697 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
5698 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
5699 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
5700 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
5701 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
5702 missing in my book.</p>
5703
5704 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
5705 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
5706 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
5707 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
5708 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
5709 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
5710 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
5711
5712       </div>
5713       <div class="tags">
5714
5715
5716         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
5717
5718
5719       </div>
5720     </div>
5721     <div class="padding"></div>
5722
5723     <div class="entry">
5724       <div class="title">
5725         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
5726       </div>
5727       <div class="date">
5728         21st November 2011
5729       </div>
5730       <div class="body">
5731         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
5732 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
5733 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
5734 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
5735 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
5736 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
5737 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
5738 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
5739 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
5740 the tools to do so.</p>
5741
5742 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
5743 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
5744 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
5745 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
5746
5747 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
5748 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
5749 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
5750 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
5751 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
5752 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
5753 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
5754 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
5755
5756 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
5757 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
5758 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
5759
5760 <p><pre>
5761 #!/usr/bin/perl
5762 use strict;
5763 use warnings;
5764 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
5765 BEGIN {
5766     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
5767     my %rhelmodules = (
5768         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
5769         );
5770     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
5771         eval "use $module;";
5772         if ($@) {
5773             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
5774             system("yum install -y $pkg");
5775             eval "use $module;";
5776         }
5777     }
5778 }
5779 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
5780
5781 upgrade_dell();
5782
5783 exit 0;
5784
5785 sub run_firmware_script {
5786     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
5787     unless ($script) {
5788         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
5789         exit 1
5790     }
5791     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
5792
5793     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
5794         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
5795     } else {
5796         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
5797     }
5798 }
5799
5800 sub run_firmware_scripts {
5801     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
5802     # Run firmware packages
5803     for my $dir (@dirs) {
5804         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
5805         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
5806         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
5807             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
5808             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
5809         }
5810         closedir $dh;
5811     }
5812 }
5813
5814 sub download {
5815     my $url = shift;
5816     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
5817     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
5818 }
5819
5820 sub upgrade_dell {
5821     my @dirs;
5822     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5823     chomp $product;
5824
5825     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
5826
5827         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
5828         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
5829
5830         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
5831             CLEANUP => 1
5832             );
5833         chdir($tmpdir);
5834         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
5835         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
5836         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
5837         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
5838         my $fwopts = "-q";
5839         if (@paths) {
5840             for my $url (@paths) {
5841                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
5842             }
5843             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
5844         } else {
5845             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5846             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5847         }
5848         chdir('/');
5849     } else {
5850         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5851         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5852     }
5853 }
5854
5855 sub fetch_dell_fw {
5856     my $path = shift;
5857     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
5858     download($url);
5859 }
5860
5861 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
5862 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
5863 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
5864 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
5865     my $filename = shift;
5866
5867     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5868     chomp $product;
5869     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
5870
5871     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
5872
5873     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
5874     my @paths;
5875     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
5876         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
5877         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
5878         my $oscode;
5879         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
5880             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
5881         } else {
5882             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
5883         }
5884         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
5885         {
5886             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
5887         }
5888     }
5889     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5890         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
5891
5892         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5893         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
5894
5895         my $cpath = $component->{path};
5896         for my $path (@paths) {
5897             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5898                 push(@paths, $cpath);
5899             }
5900         }
5901     }
5902     return @paths;
5903 }
5904 </pre>
5905
5906 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5907 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
5908 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
5909 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5910 outdated.</p>
5911
5912       </div>
5913       <div class="tags">
5914
5915
5916         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>.
5917
5918
5919       </div>
5920     </div>
5921     <div class="padding"></div>
5922
5923     <div class="entry">
5924       <div class="title">
5925         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
5926       </div>
5927       <div class="date">
5928          4th August 2011
5929       </div>
5930       <div class="body">
5931         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
5932 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
5933 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
5934 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
5935 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
5936 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
5937 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
5938 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5939 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
5940
5941 <p><blockquote>
5942 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5943 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
5944 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5945 </blockquote></p>
5946
5947 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5948 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
5949 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5950 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5951 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
5952 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5953 hard to explain.</p>
5954
5955 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5956 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
5957 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
5958 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5959 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5960 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5961 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5962 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5963 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5964 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
5965 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5966 mode).</p>
5967
5968 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
5969 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5970 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
5971 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
5972 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
5973 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
5974 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5975 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5976 after visiting single user mode.</p>
5977
5978 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5979 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
5980 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5981 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5982 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5983 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5984 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
5985 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
5986
5987 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5988 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
5989 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
5990
5991       </div>
5992       <div class="tags">
5993
5994
5995         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5996
5997
5998       </div>
5999     </div>
6000     <div class="padding"></div>
6001
6002     <div class="entry">
6003       <div class="title">
6004         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
6005       </div>
6006       <div class="date">
6007         30th July 2011
6008       </div>
6009       <div class="body">
6010         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
6011 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
6012 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
6013 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
6014 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
6015 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
6016 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
6017 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
6018 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
6019 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
6020 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
6021 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
6022 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
6023
6024 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
6025 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
6026 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
6027 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
6028 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
6029 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
6030 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
6031 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
6032 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
6033
6034 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
6035 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
6036 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
6037 is presented.</p>
6038
6039 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
6040 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
6041 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
6042 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
6043 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
6044 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
6045 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
6046 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
6047 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
6048 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
6049 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
6050 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
6051 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
6052 find time to push this forward.</p>
6053
6054       </div>
6055       <div class="tags">
6056
6057
6058         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6059
6060
6061       </div>
6062     </div>
6063     <div class="padding"></div>
6064
6065     <div class="entry">
6066       <div class="title">
6067         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
6068       </div>
6069       <div class="date">
6070         29th July 2011
6071       </div>
6072       <div class="body">
6073         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
6074 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
6075 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
6076 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
6077 issues.</p>
6078
6079 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
6080 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
6081 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
6082
6083 <ol>
6084
6085 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
6086 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
6087 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
6088 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
6089 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
6090 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
6091 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
6092 Debian.</li>
6093
6094 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
6095 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
6096 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
6097 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
6098 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
6099 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
6100 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
6101 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
6102 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
6103 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
6104 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
6105 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
6106 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
6107
6108 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
6109 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
6110 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
6111 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
6112 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
6113 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
6114 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
6115 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
6116 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
6117 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
6118
6119 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
6120 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
6121 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
6122 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
6123 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
6124 latter behaviour.</li>
6125
6126 </ol>
6127
6128 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
6129 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
6130 it do not matter much.</p>
6131
6132 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
6133 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
6134 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
6135
6136       </div>
6137       <div class="tags">
6138
6139
6140         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6141
6142
6143       </div>
6144     </div>
6145     <div class="padding"></div>
6146
6147     <div class="entry">
6148       <div class="title">
6149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
6150       </div>
6151       <div class="date">
6152         26th July 2011
6153       </div>
6154       <div class="body">
6155         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
6156 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
6157 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
6158 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
6159 security support for a few years.</p>
6160
6161 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
6162 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
6163 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
6164 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
6165 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
6166 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
6167 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
6168 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
6169 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
6170 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
6171 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
6172 easier in the future.</p>
6173
6174 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
6175 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
6176 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
6177 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
6178 do not have time for.</p>
6179
6180       </div>
6181       <div class="tags">
6182
6183
6184         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
6185
6186
6187       </div>
6188     </div>
6189     <div class="padding"></div>
6190
6191     <div class="entry">
6192       <div class="title">
6193         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
6194       </div>
6195       <div class="date">
6196          3rd April 2011
6197       </div>
6198       <div class="body">
6199         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
6200 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
6201 update in English.</p>
6202
6203 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
6204 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
6205 of the British service
6206 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
6207 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
6208 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
6209 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
6210 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
6211 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
6212 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
6213 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
6214 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
6215 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
6216 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
6217 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
6218 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
6219
6220 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
6221 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
6222 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
6223 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
6224 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
6225 public infrastructure.</p>
6226
6227 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
6228 such service?</p>
6229
6230       </div>
6231       <div class="tags">
6232
6233
6234         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
6235
6236
6237       </div>
6238     </div>
6239     <div class="padding"></div>
6240
6241     <div class="entry">
6242       <div class="title">
6243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
6244       </div>
6245       <div class="date">
6246         28th January 2011
6247       </div>
6248       <div class="body">
6249         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
6250 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
6251 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
6252 available on the Internet, and check our locally
6253 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
6254 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
6255 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
6256 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
6257 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
6258 out which security holes were present in our free software
6259 collection.</p>
6260
6261 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
6262 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
6263 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
6264 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
6265 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
6266 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
6267 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
6268 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
6269 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
6270 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
6271 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
6272 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
6273 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
6274 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
6275 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
6276 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
6277
6278 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
6279 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
6280 check out, one could look up
6281 <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
6282 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
6283 The most recent one is
6284 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
6285 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
6286 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
6287
6288 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
6289 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
6290 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
6291 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
6292 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
6293 security issues out.</p>
6294
6295 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
6296 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
6297 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
6298 RHEL is providing
6299 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
6300 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
6301 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
6302
6303 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
6304 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
6305 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
6306 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
6307 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
6308 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
6309 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
6310 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
6311 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
6312 established soon.</p>
6313
6314 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
6315 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
6316 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
6317 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
6318 for their packages.</p>
6319
6320       </div>
6321       <div class="tags">
6322
6323
6324         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6325
6326
6327       </div>
6328     </div>
6329     <div class="padding"></div>
6330
6331     <div class="entry">
6332       <div class="title">
6333         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
6334       </div>
6335       <div class="date">
6336         23rd January 2011
6337       </div>
6338       <div class="body">
6339         <p>In the
6340 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
6341 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
6342 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
6343 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
6344 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
6345 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
6346 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
6347 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
6348 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
6349 one of my machines like this:</p>
6350
6351 <pre>
6352 loaded modules:
6353 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
6354 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
6355 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
6356 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
6357 10de:03ec pata_amd
6358 10de:03f6 sata_nv
6359 1022:1103 k8temp
6360 109e:036e bttv
6361 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
6362 11ab:4364 sky2
6363 </pre>
6364
6365 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
6366 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
6367
6368 <pre>
6369 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
6370     echo loaded pci modules:
6371     (
6372         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
6373         for address in * ; do
6374             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6375                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6376                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6377                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6378                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
6379                     echo "$id $module"
6380                 fi
6381             fi
6382         done
6383     )
6384     echo
6385 fi
6386 </pre>
6387
6388 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
6389 mappings:</p>
6390
6391 <pre>
6392 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
6393     echo loaded usb modules:
6394     (
6395         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
6396         for address in * ; do
6397             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6398                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6399                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6400                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6401                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
6402                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
6403                         echo "$id $module"
6404                     fi
6405                 fi
6406             fi
6407         done
6408     )
6409     echo
6410 fi
6411 </pre>
6412
6413 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
6414 well.</p>
6415
6416       </div>
6417       <div class="tags">
6418
6419
6420         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>.
6421
6422
6423       </div>
6424     </div>
6425     <div class="padding"></div>
6426
6427     <div class="entry">
6428       <div class="title">
6429         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
6430       </div>
6431       <div class="date">
6432         22nd December 2010
6433       </div>
6434       <div class="body">
6435         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
6436 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
6437 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
6438 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
6439 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
6440 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
6441 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
6442 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
6443 university.</p>
6444
6445 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
6446 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
6447 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
6448 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
6449 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
6450 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
6451 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
6452 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
6453
6454 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
6455 I perform on a new model.</p>
6456
6457 <ul>
6458
6459 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
6460 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
6461 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
6462
6463 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
6464 installation, X.org is working.</li>
6465
6466 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
6467 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
6468 reported by the program.</li>
6469
6470 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
6471 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
6472 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
6473 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
6474 normally test this by playing
6475 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
6476 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
6477
6478 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
6479 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6480
6481 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
6482 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6483
6484 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
6485 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
6486
6487 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
6488 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
6489 few.</li>
6490
6491 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
6492 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
6493 notice this.</li>
6494
6495 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
6496 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
6497 resume.</li>
6498
6499 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
6500 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
6501 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
6502 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
6503 not.</li>
6504
6505 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
6506 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
6507 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
6508 existence.</li>
6509
6510 </ul>
6511
6512 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
6513 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
6514 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
6515 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
6516 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
6517 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
6518 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
6519 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
6520
6521       </div>
6522       <div class="tags">
6523
6524
6525         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6526
6527
6528       </div>
6529     </div>
6530     <div class="padding"></div>
6531
6532     <div class="entry">
6533       <div class="title">
6534         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
6535       </div>
6536       <div class="date">
6537         11th December 2010
6538       </div>
6539       <div class="body">
6540         <p>As I continue to explore
6541 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
6542 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
6543 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
6544
6545 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
6546 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
6547 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
6548 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
6549 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
6550 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
6551 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
6552 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
6553 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
6554 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
6555 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
6556 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
6557 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
6558 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
6559 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
6560 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
6561 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
6562 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
6563 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
6564 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
6565
6566 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
6567 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
6568 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
6569 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
6570 If the Skolelinux foundation
6571 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
6572 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
6573 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
6574 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
6575 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
6576 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
6577 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
6578 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
6579
6580 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
6581 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
6582 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
6583 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
6584 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
6585 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
6586 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
6587 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
6588 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
6589 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
6590 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
6591 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
6592 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
6593 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
6594 currencies.</p>
6595
6596 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
6597 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
6598 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
6599 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
6600 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
6601 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
6602 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
6603 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
6604 BitCoins.  Check out
6605 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
6606 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
6607 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
6608 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
6609 yet.</p>
6610
6611 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
6612 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
6613 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
6614 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
6615 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
6616
6617       </div>
6618       <div class="tags">
6619
6620
6621         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6622
6623
6624       </div>
6625     </div>
6626     <div class="padding"></div>
6627
6628     <div class="entry">
6629       <div class="title">
6630         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
6631       </div>
6632       <div class="date">
6633         10th December 2010
6634       </div>
6635       <div class="body">
6636         <p>With this weeks lawless
6637 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
6638 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
6639 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
6640 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
6641 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
6642 A blog post from
6643 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
6644 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
6645 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
6646 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
6647 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
6648 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
6649 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
6650
6651 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
6652 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
6653 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
6654 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
6655 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
6656 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
6657 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
6658 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
6659 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
6660 Debian</a> soon.</p>
6661
6662 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
6663 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
6664 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
6665 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
6666 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
6667 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
6668 you can even get
6669 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
6670 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
6671 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
6672 on the current exchange rates.</p>
6673
6674 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
6675 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
6676 donations to the address
6677 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
6678
6679       </div>
6680       <div class="tags">
6681
6682
6683         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6684
6685
6686       </div>
6687     </div>
6688     <div class="padding"></div>
6689
6690     <div class="entry">
6691       <div class="title">
6692         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
6693       </div>
6694       <div class="date">
6695         27th November 2010
6696       </div>
6697       <div class="body">
6698         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
6699 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
6700 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
6701 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
6702 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
6703 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
6704 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
6705 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
6706
6707 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
6708 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6709 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
6710 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
6711 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
6712 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
6713 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
6714 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
6715 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
6716 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
6717 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
6718
6719 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
6720 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
6721 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
6722 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
6723 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
6724 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
6725 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
6726 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
6727 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
6728 what is going on.</p>
6729
6730       </div>
6731       <div class="tags">
6732
6733
6734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
6735
6736
6737       </div>
6738     </div>
6739     <div class="padding"></div>
6740
6741     <div class="entry">
6742       <div class="title">
6743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
6744       </div>
6745       <div class="date">
6746         22nd November 2010
6747       </div>
6748       <div class="body">
6749         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
6750 upgrade testing of the
6751 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6752 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
6753 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
6754 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
6755
6756 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6757
6758 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6759
6760 <blockquote><p>
6761   apache2.2-bin
6762   aptdaemon
6763   baobab
6764   binfmt-support
6765   browser-plugin-gnash
6766   cheese-common
6767   cli-common
6768   cups-pk-helper
6769   dmz-cursor-theme
6770   empathy
6771   empathy-common
6772   freedesktop-sound-theme
6773   freeglut3
6774   gconf-defaults-service
6775   gdm-themes
6776   gedit-plugins
6777   geoclue
6778   geoclue-hostip
6779   geoclue-localnet
6780   geoclue-manual
6781   geoclue-yahoo
6782   gnash
6783   gnash-common
6784   gnome
6785   gnome-backgrounds
6786   gnome-cards-data
6787   gnome-codec-install
6788   gnome-core
6789   gnome-desktop-environment
6790   gnome-disk-utility
6791   gnome-screenshot
6792   gnome-search-tool
6793   gnome-session-canberra
6794   gnome-system-log
6795   gnome-themes-extras
6796   gnome-themes-more
6797   gnome-user-share
6798   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6799   gstreamer0.10-tools
6800   gtk2-engines
6801   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6802   gtk2-engines-smooth
6803   hamster-applet
6804   libapache2-mod-dnssd
6805   libapr1
6806   libaprutil1
6807   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
6808   libaprutil1-ldap
6809   libart2.0-cil
6810   libboost-date-time1.42.0
6811   libboost-python1.42.0
6812   libboost-thread1.42.0
6813   libchamplain-0.4-0
6814   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
6815   libcheese-gtk18
6816   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6817   libcryptui0
6818   libdiscid0
6819   libelf1
6820   libepc-1.0-2
6821   libepc-common
6822   libepc-ui-1.0-2
6823   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6824   libfreerdp0
6825   libgconf2.0-cil
6826   libgdata-common
6827   libgdata7
6828   libgdu-gtk0
6829   libgee2
6830   libgeoclue0
6831   libgexiv2-0
6832   libgif4
6833   libglade2.0-cil
6834   libglib2.0-cil
6835   libgmime2.4-cil
6836   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6837   libgnome2.24-cil
6838   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
6839   libgpod-common
6840   libgpod4
6841   libgtk2.0-cil
6842   libgtkglext1
6843   libgtksourceview2.0-common
6844   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6845   libmono-addins0.2-cil
6846   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
6847   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6848   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
6849   libmono-posix2.0-cil
6850   libmono-security2.0-cil
6851   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6852   libmono-system2.0-cil
6853   libmtp8
6854   libmusicbrainz3-6
6855   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
6856   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
6857   libopal3.6.8
6858   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
6859   libpt2.6.7
6860   libpython2.6
6861   librpm1
6862   librpmio1
6863   libsdl1.2debian
6864   libsrtp0
6865   libssh-4
6866   libtelepathy-farsight0
6867   libtelepathy-glib0
6868   libtidy-0.99-0
6869   media-player-info
6870   mesa-utils
6871   mono-2.0-gac
6872   mono-gac
6873   mono-runtime
6874   nautilus-sendto
6875   nautilus-sendto-empathy
6876   p7zip-full
6877   pkg-config
6878   python-aptdaemon
6879   python-aptdaemon-gtk
6880   python-axiom
6881   python-beautifulsoup
6882   python-bugbuddy
6883   python-clientform
6884   python-coherence
6885   python-configobj
6886   python-crypto
6887   python-cupshelpers
6888   python-elementtree
6889   python-epsilon
6890   python-evolution
6891   python-feedparser
6892   python-gdata
6893   python-gdbm
6894   python-gst0.10
6895   python-gtkglext1
6896   python-gtksourceview2
6897   python-httplib2
6898   python-louie
6899   python-mako
6900   python-markupsafe
6901   python-mechanize
6902   python-nevow
6903   python-notify
6904   python-opengl
6905   python-openssl
6906   python-pam
6907   python-pkg-resources
6908   python-pyasn1
6909   python-pysqlite2
6910   python-rdflib
6911   python-serial
6912   python-tagpy
6913   python-twisted-bin
6914   python-twisted-conch
6915   python-twisted-core
6916   python-twisted-web
6917   python-utidylib
6918   python-webkit
6919   python-xdg
6920   python-zope.interface
6921   remmina
6922   remmina-plugin-data
6923   remmina-plugin-rdp
6924   remmina-plugin-vnc
6925   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6926   rhythmbox-plugins
6927   rpm-common
6928   rpm2cpio
6929   seahorse-plugins
6930   shotwell
6931   software-center
6932   system-config-printer-udev
6933   telepathy-gabble
6934   telepathy-mission-control-5
6935   telepathy-salut
6936   tomboy
6937   totem
6938   totem-coherence
6939   totem-mozilla
6940   totem-plugins
6941   transmission-common
6942   xdg-user-dirs
6943   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6944   xserver-xephyr
6945 </p></blockquote>
6946
6947 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6948
6949 <blockquote><p>
6950   cheese
6951   ekiga
6952   eog
6953   epiphany-extensions
6954   evolution-exchange
6955   fast-user-switch-applet
6956   file-roller
6957   gcalctool
6958   gconf-editor
6959   gdm
6960   gedit
6961   gedit-common
6962   gnome-games
6963   gnome-games-data
6964   gnome-nettool
6965   gnome-system-tools
6966   gnome-themes
6967   gnuchess
6968   gucharmap
6969   guile-1.8-libs
6970   libavahi-ui0
6971   libdmx1
6972   libgalago3
6973   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6974   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6975   liblircclient0
6976   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6977   libspeexdsp1
6978   libsvga1
6979   rhythmbox
6980   seahorse
6981   sound-juicer
6982   system-config-printer
6983   totem-common
6984   transmission-gtk
6985   vinagre
6986   vino
6987 </p></blockquote>
6988
6989 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6990
6991 <blockquote><p>
6992   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6993 </p></blockquote>
6994
6995 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6996
6997 <blockquote><p>
6998 [nothing]
6999 </p></blockquote>
7000
7001 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7002
7003 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7004
7005 <blockquote><p>
7006   ksmserver
7007 </p></blockquote>
7008
7009 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7010
7011 <blockquote><p>
7012   kwin
7013   network-manager-kde
7014 </p></blockquote>
7015
7016 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7017
7018 <blockquote><p>
7019   arts
7020   dolphin
7021   freespacenotifier
7022   google-gadgets-gst
7023   google-gadgets-xul
7024   kappfinder
7025   kcalc
7026   kcharselect
7027   kde-core
7028   kde-plasma-desktop
7029   kde-standard
7030   kde-window-manager
7031   kdeartwork
7032   kdeartwork-emoticons
7033   kdeartwork-style
7034   kdeartwork-theme-icon
7035   kdebase
7036   kdebase-apps
7037   kdebase-workspace
7038   kdebase-workspace-bin
7039   kdebase-workspace-data
7040   kdeeject
7041   kdelibs
7042   kdeplasma-addons
7043   kdeutils
7044   kdewallpapers
7045   kdf
7046   kfloppy
7047   kgpg
7048   khelpcenter4
7049   kinfocenter
7050   konq-plugins-l10n
7051   konqueror-nsplugins
7052   kscreensaver
7053   kscreensaver-xsavers
7054   ktimer
7055   kwrite
7056   libgle3
7057   libkde4-ruby1.8
7058   libkonq5
7059   libkonq5-templates
7060   libnetpbm10
7061   libplasma-ruby
7062   libplasma-ruby1.8
7063   libqt4-ruby1.8
7064   marble-data
7065   marble-plugins
7066   netpbm
7067   nuvola-icon-theme
7068   plasma-dataengines-workspace
7069   plasma-desktop
7070   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
7071   plasma-runners-addons
7072   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
7073   plasma-scriptengine-python
7074   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
7075   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
7076   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
7077   plasma-scriptengines
7078   plasma-wallpapers-addons
7079   plasma-widget-folderview
7080   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7081   ruby
7082   sweeper
7083   update-notifier-kde
7084   xscreensaver-data-extra
7085   xscreensaver-gl
7086   xscreensaver-gl-extra
7087   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7088 </p></blockquote>
7089
7090 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7091
7092 <blockquote><p>
7093   ark
7094   google-gadgets-common
7095   google-gadgets-qt
7096   htdig
7097   kate
7098   kdebase-bin
7099   kdebase-data
7100   kdepasswd
7101   kfind
7102   klipper
7103   konq-plugins
7104   konqueror
7105   ksysguard
7106   ksysguardd
7107   libarchive1
7108   libcln6
7109   libeet1
7110   libeina-svn-06
7111   libggadget-1.0-0b
7112   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
7113   libgps19
7114   libkdecorations4
7115   libkephal4
7116   libkonq4
7117   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
7118   libkscreensaver5
7119   libksgrd4
7120   libksignalplotter4
7121   libkunitconversion4
7122   libkwineffects1a
7123   libmarblewidget4
7124   libntrack-qt4-1
7125   libntrack0
7126   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
7127   libplasmaclock4a
7128   libplasmagenericshell4
7129   libprocesscore4a
7130   libprocessui4a
7131   libqalculate5
7132   libqedje0a
7133   libqtruby4shared2
7134   libqzion0a
7135   libruby1.8
7136   libscim8c2a
7137   libsmokekdecore4-3
7138   libsmokekdeui4-3
7139   libsmokekfile3
7140   libsmokekhtml3
7141   libsmokekio3
7142   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
7143   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
7144   libsmokekparts3
7145   libsmokektexteditor3
7146   libsmokekutils3
7147   libsmokenepomuk3
7148   libsmokephonon3
7149   libsmokeplasma3
7150   libsmokeqtcore4-3
7151   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
7152   libsmokeqtgui4-3
7153   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
7154   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
7155   libsmokeqtscript4-3
7156   libsmokeqtsql4-3
7157   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
7158   libsmokeqttest4-3
7159   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
7160   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
7161   libsmokeqtxml4-3
7162   libsmokesolid3
7163   libsmokesoprano3
7164   libtaskmanager4a
7165   libtidy-0.99-0
7166   libweather-ion4a
7167   libxklavier16
7168   libxxf86misc1
7169   okteta
7170   oxygencursors
7171   plasma-dataengines-addons
7172   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
7173   plasma-widget-lancelot
7174   plasma-widgets-addons
7175   plasma-widgets-workspace
7176   polkit-kde-1
7177   ruby1.8
7178   systemsettings
7179   update-notifier-common
7180 </p></blockquote>
7181
7182 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
7183 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
7184 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
7185 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
7186
7187       </div>
7188       <div class="tags">
7189
7190
7191         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7192
7193
7194       </div>
7195     </div>
7196     <div class="padding"></div>
7197
7198     <div class="entry">
7199       <div class="title">
7200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
7201       </div>
7202       <div class="date">
7203         22nd November 2010
7204       </div>
7205       <div class="body">
7206         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
7207 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
7208 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
7209 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
7210 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
7211 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
7212 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
7213 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
7214 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
7215
7216 <p>I found
7217 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
7218 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
7219 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
7220 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
7221 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
7222 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
7223
7224 <pre>
7225 #!/bin/sh
7226
7227 # Based on
7228 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
7229
7230 set -e
7231 set -x
7232
7233 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
7234     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
7235     exit 1
7236 else
7237     host="$1"
7238 fi
7239
7240 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
7241     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
7242     exit 1
7243 fi
7244
7245 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
7246 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7247 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7248 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
7249
7250 img=$host.img
7251 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
7252 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
7253
7254 parted $img mklabel msdos
7255 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
7256 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
7257 parted $img set 1 boot on
7258
7259 modprobe dm-mod
7260 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
7261 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
7262
7263 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
7264 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
7265 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
7266
7267 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
7268 losetup -d /dev/loop0
7269 </pre>
7270
7271 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
7272 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
7273
7274 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
7275 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
7276 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
7277 seem to work just fine.</p>
7278
7279       </div>
7280       <div class="tags">
7281
7282
7283         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7284
7285
7286       </div>
7287     </div>
7288     <div class="padding"></div>
7289
7290     <div class="entry">
7291       <div class="title">
7292         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
7293       </div>
7294       <div class="date">
7295         20th November 2010
7296       </div>
7297       <div class="body">
7298         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
7299 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7300 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
7301 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
7302
7303 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
7304 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
7305 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
7306
7307 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
7308
7309 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7310
7311 <blockquote><p>
7312   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
7313   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
7314   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
7315   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
7316   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
7317   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
7318   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
7319   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
7320   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
7321   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
7322   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7323   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7324   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
7325   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
7326   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
7327   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
7328   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7329   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
7330   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7331   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
7332   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
7333   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7334   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
7335   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
7336   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
7337   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7338   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7339   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
7340   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7341   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
7342   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
7343   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7344   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
7345   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
7346   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
7347   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
7348   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
7349   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
7350   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
7351   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
7352   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
7353   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
7354   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
7355   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
7356   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
7357   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
7358   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
7359   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
7360   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
7361   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
7362   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
7363   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
7364   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7365   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
7366   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
7367   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
7368   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
7369   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
7370   zip
7371 </p></blockquote>
7372
7373 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
7374
7375 <blockquote><p>
7376   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
7377   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
7378   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
7379   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
7380   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
7381   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
7382   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
7383   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
7384   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
7385   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
7386   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
7387   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7388   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7389   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7390   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7391   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
7392   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7393   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
7394   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
7395   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
7396   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
7397   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
7398   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7399   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
7400   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
7401   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
7402   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
7403   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
7404   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
7405 </p></blockquote>
7406
7407 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7408
7409 <blockquote><p>
7410   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7411 </p></blockquote>
7412
7413 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7414
7415 <blockquote><p>
7416 [nothing]
7417 </p></blockquote>
7418
7419 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7420
7421 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7422
7423 <blockquote><p>
7424   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
7425   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7426   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
7427   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
7428   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
7429   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
7430   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7431   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
7432   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
7433   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7434   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
7435   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
7436   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
7437   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
7438   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
7439   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
7440   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
7441   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
7442   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
7443   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
7444   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
7445   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
7446   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
7447   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
7448   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
7449   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
7450   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
7451   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
7452   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
7453   ttf-sazanami-gothic
7454 </p></blockquote>
7455
7456 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7457
7458 <blockquote><p>
7459   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
7460   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
7461   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
7462   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
7463   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
7464   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
7465   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
7466   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
7467   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
7468   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
7469   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
7470   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
7471   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
7472   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
7473   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7474   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7475   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
7476   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
7477   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7478   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
7479   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7480   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
7481   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7482   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7483   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
7484   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
7485   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
7486   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
7487   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
7488   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
7489   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
7490   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
7491   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
7492 </p></blockquote>
7493
7494 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7495
7496 <blockquote><p>
7497   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
7498   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
7499   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
7500   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
7501   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7502   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
7503   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7504 </p></blockquote>
7505
7506 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7507
7508 <blockquote><p>
7509   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
7510 </p></blockquote>
7511
7512       </div>
7513       <div class="tags">
7514
7515
7516         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7517
7518
7519       </div>
7520     </div>
7521     <div class="padding"></div>
7522
7523     <div class="entry">
7524       <div class="title">
7525         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
7526       </div>
7527       <div class="date">
7528         20th November 2010
7529       </div>
7530       <div class="body">
7531         <p>Answering
7532 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
7533 call from the Gnash project</a> for
7534 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
7535 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
7536 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
7537 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
7538 releases out more often.</p>
7539
7540 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
7541 I have considered setting up a <a
7542 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
7543 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
7544 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
7545 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
7546 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
7547 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
7548 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
7549 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
7550 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
7551 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
7552 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
7553 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
7554
7555       </div>
7556       <div class="tags">
7557
7558
7559         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7560
7561
7562       </div>
7563     </div>
7564     <div class="padding"></div>
7565
7566     <div class="entry">
7567       <div class="title">
7568         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
7569       </div>
7570       <div class="date">
7571          9th November 2010
7572       </div>
7573       <div class="body">
7574         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
7575
7576 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
7577 3D linked in from
7578 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
7579 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
7580
7581       </div>
7582       <div class="tags">
7583
7584
7585         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7586
7587
7588       </div>
7589     </div>
7590     <div class="padding"></div>
7591
7592     <div class="entry">
7593       <div class="title">
7594         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
7595       </div>
7596       <div class="date">
7597         24th October 2010
7598       </div>
7599       <div class="body">
7600         <p>Some updates.</p>
7601
7602 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
7603 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
7604 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
7605 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
7606 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
7607 :)</p>
7608
7609 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
7610 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
7611 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
7612 It is called
7613 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
7614 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
7615 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
7616 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
7617 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
7618 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
7619
7620 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
7621 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
7622 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
7623 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
7624 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
7625 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
7626 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
7627 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
7628 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
7629 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
7630
7631       </div>
7632       <div class="tags">
7633
7634
7635         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
7636
7637
7638       </div>
7639     </div>
7640     <div class="padding"></div>
7641
7642     <div class="entry">
7643       <div class="title">
7644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
7645       </div>
7646       <div class="date">
7647          4th September 2010
7648       </div>
7649       <div class="body">
7650         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
7651 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
7652 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
7653 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
7654 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
7655 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
7656 installed.</p>
7657
7658 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
7659 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
7660 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
7661 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
7662 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7663 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
7664 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
7665 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
7666 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
7667
7668 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
7669 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
7670 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
7671 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
7672 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
7673 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
7674 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
7675 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
7676 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
7677 pages they want to visit.</p>
7678
7679 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
7680 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
7681 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
7682 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
7683 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
7684 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
7685 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
7686 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
7687 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
7688 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
7689 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
7690
7691       </div>
7692       <div class="tags">
7693
7694
7695         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7696
7697
7698       </div>
7699     </div>
7700     <div class="padding"></div>
7701
7702     <div class="entry">
7703       <div class="title">
7704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
7705       </div>
7706       <div class="date">
7707         27th July 2010
7708       </div>
7709       <div class="body">
7710         <p>I discovered this while doing
7711 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
7712 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
7713 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
7714 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
7715 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
7716
7717 <p>An example is from todays
7718 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
7719 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
7720 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
7721 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
7722 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
7723 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
7724 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
7725
7726 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
7727
7728 <blockquote><pre>
7729 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
7730  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
7731   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
7732 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
7733  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
7734 </pre></blockquote>
7735
7736 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
7737 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
7738 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
7739 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
7740 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
7741 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
7742 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
7743 of dependency loops.</p>
7744
7745 <p>Thanks to
7746 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
7747 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
7748 dependencies
7749 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
7750 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
7751
7752 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
7753 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
7754 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
7755 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
7756 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
7757 it.</p>
7758
7759       </div>
7760       <div class="tags">
7761
7762
7763         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7764
7765
7766       </div>
7767     </div>
7768     <div class="padding"></div>
7769
7770     <div class="entry">
7771       <div class="title">
7772         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
7773       </div>
7774       <div class="date">
7775         17th July 2010
7776       </div>
7777       <div class="body">
7778         <p>This is a
7779 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
7780 on my
7781 <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
7782 work</a> on
7783 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
7784 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
7785
7786 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
7787 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
7788 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
7789 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
7790
7791 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
7792 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
7793 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
7794
7795 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
7796
7797 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
7798 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
7799 the web.
7800
7801 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
7802 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
7803 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
7804 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
7805 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
7806 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
7807
7808 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
7809 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
7810 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
7811 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
7812 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
7813 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
7814 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
7815 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
7816 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
7817 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
7818 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
7819 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
7820 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
7821 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
7822 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
7823 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
7824
7825 <blockquote><pre>
7826 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7827   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7828   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7829   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7830   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7831   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7832   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7833
7834 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7835   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7836   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
7837   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
7838   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
7839   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
7840 </pre></blockquote>
7841
7842 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
7843 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
7844 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
7845 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7846 also exist.</p>
7847
7848 <blockquote><pre>
7849 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7850 objectclass: top
7851 objectclass: dnsdomain
7852 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7853 dc: tjener
7854 arecord: 10.0.2.2
7855 associateddomain: tjener.intern
7856
7857 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7858 objectclass: top
7859 objectclass: dnsdomain2
7860 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7861 dc: 2
7862 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
7863 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
7864 </pre></blockquote>
7865
7866 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
7867 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
7868 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
7869 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
7870 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
7871 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
7872 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
7873 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
7874 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
7875 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
7876 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
7877 instead.</p>
7878
7879 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
7880 like this:</p>
7881
7882 <blockquote><pre>
7883 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7884   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7885   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7886   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7887   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7888   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7889
7890 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7891   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
7892 </pre></blockquote>
7893
7894 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
7895 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
7896 reverse lookups.</p>
7897
7898 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
7899 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
7900 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
7901 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
7902
7903 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
7904 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
7905 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
7906
7907 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
7908 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
7909 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
7910 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
7911 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
7912
7913 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
7914 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
7915 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
7916 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
7917 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
7918
7919 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
7920 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
7921 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
7922 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
7923 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
7924 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
7925
7926 <blockquote><pre>
7927 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
7928     SUP top
7929     AUXILIARY
7930     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
7931           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
7932           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
7933           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
7934           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
7935     ))
7936 </pre></blockquote>
7937
7938 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
7939 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
7940 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
7941 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
7942 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
7943 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
7944
7945 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
7946
7947 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
7948 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
7949 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
7950 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
7951 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
7952
7953 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
7954 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
7955 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
7956 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
7957
7958 <blockquote><pre>
7959 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
7960 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
7961 </pre></blockquote>
7962
7963 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
7964 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
7965 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
7966 search result is this entry:</p>
7967
7968 <blockquote><pre>
7969 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7970 cn: dhcp
7971 objectClass: top
7972 objectClass: dhcpServer
7973 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7974 </pre></blockquote>
7975
7976 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
7977 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
7978 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
7979 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
7980 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
7981 The search result is this entry:</p>
7982
7983 <blockquote><pre>
7984 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7985 cn: DHCP Config
7986 objectClass: top
7987 objectClass: dhcpService
7988 objectClass: dhcpOptions
7989 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7990 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
7991 dhcpStatements: authoritative
7992 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
7993 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
7994 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
7995 </pre></blockquote>
7996
7997 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
7998 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
7999 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
8000 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
8001 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
8002 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
8003 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
8004 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
8005 related computer objects.</p>
8006
8007 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
8008 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
8009 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
8010 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
8011 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
8012 like:</p>
8013
8014 <blockquote><pre>
8015 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8016 cn: hostname
8017 objectClass: top
8018 objectClass: dhcpHost
8019 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8020 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
8021 </pre></blockquote>
8022
8023 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
8024 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
8025 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
8026 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
8027 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
8028 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
8029 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
8030 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
8031 structural object class.
8032
8033 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
8034
8035 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
8036 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
8037 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
8038 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
8039 in the configuration.</p>
8040
8041 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
8042 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
8043 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
8044 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
8045 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
8046 structure.</p>
8047
8048 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
8049 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
8050
8051 <blockquote><pre>
8052 ou=services
8053   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
8054     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
8055     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8056       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8057         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8058     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
8059       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
8060         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
8061     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
8062       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
8063 </pre></blockquote>
8064
8065 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
8066 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
8067 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
8068 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
8069
8070 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
8071 like this:</p>
8072
8073 <blockquote><pre>
8074 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8075 dc: hostname
8076 objectClass: top
8077 objectClass: dhcpHost
8078 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8079 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
8080 associateddomain: hostname.intern
8081 arecord: 10.11.12.13
8082 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8083 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
8084 </pre></blockquote>
8085
8086 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
8087 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
8088 auxiliary object class.</p>
8089
8090       </div>
8091       <div class="tags">
8092
8093
8094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8095
8096
8097       </div>
8098     </div>
8099     <div class="padding"></div>
8100
8101     <div class="entry">
8102       <div class="title">
8103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
8104       </div>
8105       <div class="date">
8106         14th July 2010
8107       </div>
8108       <div class="body">
8109         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
8110 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
8111 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
8112 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
8113 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
8114
8115 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
8116 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
8117
8118 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
8119 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
8120 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
8121 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
8122 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
8123 to a slave DNS server.</p>
8124
8125 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
8126 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
8127 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
8128 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
8129 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
8130 seem to work.</p>
8131
8132 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
8133 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
8134 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
8135 this:</p>
8136
8137 <blockquote><pre>
8138   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8139   cn: hostname
8140   objectClass: dhcphost
8141   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8142   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
8143   associateddomain: hostname.intern
8144   arecord: 10.11.12.13
8145   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
8146   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
8147   ldapconfigsound: Y
8148 </pre></blockquote>
8149
8150 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
8151 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
8152 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
8153 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
8154
8155 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
8156 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
8157 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
8158 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
8159 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
8160 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
8161 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
8162 might be a good place to put it.</p>
8163
8164 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8165 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8166
8167       </div>
8168       <div class="tags">
8169
8170
8171         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8172
8173
8174       </div>
8175     </div>
8176     <div class="padding"></div>
8177
8178     <div class="entry">
8179       <div class="title">
8180         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
8181       </div>
8182       <div class="date">
8183         11th July 2010
8184       </div>
8185       <div class="body">
8186         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
8187 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
8188 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
8189 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
8190
8191 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
8192 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
8193 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
8194 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
8195 LTSP clients.</p>
8196
8197 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
8198 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
8199 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
8200
8201 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
8202 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
8203 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
8204
8205 <blockquote><pre>
8206 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
8207 #
8208 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
8209 #
8210 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
8211 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
8212 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
8213 #
8214 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
8215 # existence of attribute names.
8216 #
8217 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
8218 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
8219 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
8220 #
8221 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
8222 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
8223 #
8224 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
8225 #     SUP top
8226 #     AUXILIARY
8227 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
8228
8229 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
8230 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
8231     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
8232     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
8233         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
8234         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
8235             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
8236             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
8237             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
8238             # bass value on to clients
8239             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
8240         done
8241     done
8242 fi
8243 </pre></blockquote>
8244
8245 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
8246 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
8247 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
8248 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
8249 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
8250
8251 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8252 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8253
8254 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
8255 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
8256 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
8257 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
8258 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
8259 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
8260
8261       </div>
8262       <div class="tags">
8263
8264
8265         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8266
8267
8268       </div>
8269     </div>
8270     <div class="padding"></div>
8271
8272     <div class="entry">
8273       <div class="title">
8274         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8275       </div>
8276       <div class="date">
8277          9th July 2010
8278       </div>
8279       <div class="body">
8280         <p>Since
8281 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
8282 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
8283 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
8284 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
8285 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
8286 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
8287 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
8288 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
8289 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
8290 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
8291 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
8292 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
8293 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
8294
8295       </div>
8296       <div class="tags">
8297
8298
8299         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8300
8301
8302       </div>
8303     </div>
8304     <div class="padding"></div>
8305
8306     <div class="entry">
8307       <div class="title">
8308         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
8309       </div>
8310       <div class="date">
8311          3rd July 2010
8312       </div>
8313       <div class="body">
8314         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
8315 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
8316 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
8317 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
8318 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
8319 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
8320 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
8321 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
8322
8323 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
8324 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
8325 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
8326 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
8327 publish the difference.</p>
8328
8329 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8330
8331 <blockquote><p>
8332   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8333   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
8334   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
8335   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8336   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
8337   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8338   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
8339   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
8340 </p></blockquote>
8341
8342 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8343
8344 <blockquote><p>
8345   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
8346   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
8347   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
8348   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
8349   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
8350   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
8351   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8352   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
8353   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8354   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8355   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
8356   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
8357   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
8358   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
8359   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
8360   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
8361   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
8362   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
8363   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
8364   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
8365 </p></blockquote>
8366
8367 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8368
8369 <blockquote><p>
8370   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
8371   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
8372   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8373   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8374   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
8375   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
8376   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
8377   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8378   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8379   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8380   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8381   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
8382   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
8383   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
8384   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
8385   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
8386   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
8387   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
8388   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
8389   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
8390   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
8391 </p></blockquote>
8392
8393 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8394
8395 <blockquote><p>
8396   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
8397   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
8398   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
8399 </p></blockquote>
8400
8401 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
8402 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
8403 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
8404 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
8405 the difference somewhat.
8406
8407       </div>
8408       <div class="tags">
8409
8410
8411         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8412
8413
8414       </div>
8415     </div>
8416     <div class="padding"></div>
8417
8418     <div class="entry">
8419       <div class="title">
8420         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8421       </div>
8422       <div class="date">
8423         28th June 2010
8424       </div>
8425       <div class="body">
8426         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
8427 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
8428 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
8429 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
8430 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
8431 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
8432 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
8433 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
8434 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
8435 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
8436
8437 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
8438 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
8439 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
8440 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
8441 released.</p>
8442
8443 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
8444 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
8445 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
8446 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
8447
8448 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
8449 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8450
8451 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
8452 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
8453 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
8454 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
8455 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
8456
8457       </div>
8458       <div class="tags">
8459
8460
8461         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8462
8463
8464       </div>
8465     </div>
8466     <div class="padding"></div>
8467
8468     <div class="entry">
8469       <div class="title">
8470         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
8471       </div>
8472       <div class="date">
8473         24th June 2010
8474       </div>
8475       <div class="body">
8476         <p>A while back, I
8477 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
8478 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
8479 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
8480 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
8481
8482 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
8483 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
8484 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
8485 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
8486
8487 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
8488 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
8489 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
8490 Debian Edu.</p>
8491
8492 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
8493 the
8494 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
8495 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
8496 available today from IETF.</p>
8497
8498 <pre>
8499 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
8500 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
8501 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
8502  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
8503         NAME 'dhcpHost'
8504         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
8505 -       SUP top
8506 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
8507         MUST cn
8508         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
8509         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
8510 </pre>
8511
8512 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
8513 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
8514 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
8515
8516 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8517 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8518
8519       </div>
8520       <div class="tags">
8521
8522
8523         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8524
8525
8526       </div>
8527     </div>
8528     <div class="padding"></div>
8529
8530     <div class="entry">
8531       <div class="title">
8532         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
8533       </div>
8534       <div class="date">
8535         16th June 2010
8536       </div>
8537       <div class="body">
8538         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
8539 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
8540 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
8541 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
8542 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
8543 this:
8544
8545 <blockquote><pre>
8546 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8547 tasksel --new-install
8548 </pre></blockquote>
8549
8550 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
8551 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
8552 any output what so ever.
8553
8554 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
8555 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
8556 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
8557 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
8558 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
8559 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
8560 code like this:
8561
8562 <blockquote><pre>
8563 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8564 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
8565 $cmd
8566 </pre></blockquote>
8567
8568 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
8569 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
8570 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
8571 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
8572 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
8573 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
8574 installation.</p>
8575
8576 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
8577 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
8578 like this.</p>
8579
8580       </div>
8581       <div class="tags">
8582
8583
8584         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8585
8586
8587       </div>
8588     </div>
8589     <div class="padding"></div>
8590
8591     <div class="entry">
8592       <div class="title">
8593         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
8594       </div>
8595       <div class="date">
8596         13th June 2010
8597       </div>
8598       <div class="body">
8599         <p>My
8600 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
8601 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
8602 finally made the upgrade logs available from
8603 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
8604 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
8605 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
8606 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
8607
8608 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
8609 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
8610 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
8611 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
8612 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
8613 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
8614 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
8615 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
8616
8617 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
8618 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
8619 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
8620 too surprising.</p>
8621
8622 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
8623 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
8624 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
8625 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
8626 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
8627 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
8628 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
8629 continue.</p>
8630
8631 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
8632 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
8633   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
8634   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
8635   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
8636   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
8637   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
8638   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8639   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8640   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8641   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8642   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8643   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8644   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8645   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8646   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8647   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8648   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8649   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8650   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8651   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8652   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8653   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8654   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8655   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8656   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8657   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8658   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8659   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
8660   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
8661
8662 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
8663
8664 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
8665   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
8666   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
8667   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
8668   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8669   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
8670   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
8671   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
8672   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
8673   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
8674   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8675   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
8676   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8677   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
8678   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
8679   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
8680   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
8681   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
8682   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
8683   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
8684   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
8685   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
8686   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
8687   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
8688   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8689   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
8690   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
8691   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
8692   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
8693   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8694   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8695   zip</p>
8696
8697 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
8698
8699 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
8700   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
8701   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
8702   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
8703   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
8704   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
8705   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8706   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8707   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8708   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8709   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8710   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8711   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8712   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8713   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8714   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8715   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8716   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8717   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8718   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8719   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8720   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8721   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8722   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8723   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8724   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8725   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8726   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
8727
8728 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
8729 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
8730   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8731   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
8732   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
8733   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8734   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
8735   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
8736   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8737   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
8738   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
8739   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
8740   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
8741   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
8742   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
8743   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
8744   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
8745   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8746   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8747   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8748   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
8749   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8750   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
8751   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
8752   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8753   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8754   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
8755   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
8756   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
8757   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
8758   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
8759   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
8760   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
8761   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
8762   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
8763   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8764   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8765   xulrunner-1.9</p>
8766
8767
8768       </div>
8769       <div class="tags">
8770
8771
8772         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8773
8774
8775       </div>
8776     </div>
8777     <div class="padding"></div>
8778
8779     <div class="entry">
8780       <div class="title">
8781         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
8782       </div>
8783       <div class="date">
8784         11th June 2010
8785       </div>
8786       <div class="body">
8787         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
8788 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
8789 have been discovered and reported in the process
8790 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
8791 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
8792 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
8793 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
8794 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
8795
8796 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
8797 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
8798 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
8799 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
8800 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
8801 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
8802
8803 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
8804 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
8805 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8806 is created.  The bug report
8807 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
8808 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
8809 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
8810 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
8811 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
8812 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
8813 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
8814 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
8815 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
8816 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
8817 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
8818 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
8819 Debian Squeeze.</p>
8820
8821 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
8822 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
8823 trick:</p>
8824
8825 <blockquote><pre>
8826 #!/bin/sh
8827 set -ex
8828
8829 if [ "$1" ] ; then
8830     desktop=$1
8831 else
8832     desktop=gnome
8833 fi
8834
8835 from=lenny
8836 to=squeeze
8837
8838 exec &lt; /dev/null
8839 unset LANG
8840 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
8841 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
8842 fuser -mv .
8843 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
8844 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8845 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
8846 #!/bin/sh
8847 exit 101
8848 EOF
8849 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
8850 exit_cleanup() {
8851     umount $tmpdir/proc
8852 }
8853 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
8854 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
8855 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
8856
8857 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
8858
8859 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
8860 # to return the correct answers.
8861 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
8862     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
8863
8864 # Include the desktop and laptop task
8865 for test in desktop laptop ; do
8866     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
8867 #!/bin/sh
8868 exit 2
8869 EOF
8870     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
8871 done
8872
8873 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8874 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
8875 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
8876 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
8877
8878 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
8879 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8880 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8881 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
8882 fuser -mv
8883 </pre></blockquote>
8884
8885 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
8886 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
8887 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
8888 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
8889 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
8890 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
8891
8892 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
8893 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
8894 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
8895 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
8896 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
8897 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
8898 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
8899
8900 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
8901 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
8902 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
8903 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
8904 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
8905 packages.</p>
8906
8907       </div>
8908       <div class="tags">
8909
8910
8911         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8912
8913
8914       </div>
8915     </div>
8916     <div class="padding"></div>
8917
8918     <div class="entry">
8919       <div class="title">
8920         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
8921       </div>
8922       <div class="date">
8923          6th June 2010
8924       </div>
8925       <div class="body">
8926         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
8927 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
8928 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
8929 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
8930 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
8931 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
8932 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
8933
8934 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
8935 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
8936 COLUMNS):</p>
8937
8938 <blockquote><pre>
8939 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
8940 previous=N
8941 PREVLEVEL=
8942 RUNLEVEL=
8943 runlevel=S
8944 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
8945 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
8946 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
8947 </pre></blockquote>
8948
8949 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
8950 script.</p>
8951
8952 <blockquote><pre>
8953 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
8954 previous=N
8955 PREVLEVEL=N
8956 RUNLEVEL=S
8957 runlevel=S
8958 </pre></blockquote>
8959
8960 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
8961 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
8962 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
8963
8964 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
8965 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
8966 choice.</p>
8967
8968       </div>
8969       <div class="tags">
8970
8971
8972         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8973
8974
8975       </div>
8976     </div>
8977     <div class="padding"></div>
8978
8979     <div class="entry">
8980       <div class="title">
8981         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
8982       </div>
8983       <div class="date">
8984          6th June 2010
8985       </div>
8986       <div class="body">
8987         <p>Via the
8988 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
8989 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
8990 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
8991 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
8992 following the standards wars of today.</p>
8993
8994       </div>
8995       <div class="tags">
8996
8997
8998         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
8999
9000
9001       </div>
9002     </div>
9003     <div class="padding"></div>
9004
9005     <div class="entry">
9006       <div class="title">
9007         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
9008       </div>
9009       <div class="date">
9010          3rd June 2010
9011       </div>
9012       <div class="body">
9013         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
9014 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
9015 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
9016 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
9017 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
9018
9019 <blockquote><pre>
9020 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
9021   vendor                    count
9022   Dell Computer Corporation     1
9023     PowerEdge 1750              1
9024   IBM                           1
9025     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
9026   Intel                         2
9027   [no-dmi-info]                 3
9028 maintainer:~#
9029 </pre></blockquote>
9030
9031 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
9032 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
9033 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
9034 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
9035 option to list the individual machines.</p>
9036
9037 <p>A larger list is
9038 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
9039 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
9040 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
9041 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
9042 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
9043 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
9044 collector.</p>
9045
9046       </div>
9047       <div class="tags">
9048
9049
9050         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
9051
9052
9053       </div>
9054     </div>
9055     <div class="padding"></div>
9056
9057     <div class="entry">
9058       <div class="title">
9059         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
9060       </div>
9061       <div class="date">
9062          1st June 2010
9063       </div>
9064       <div class="body">
9065         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
9066 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
9067 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
9068 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
9069 wait.</p>
9070
9071 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
9072 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
9073 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
9074 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
9075 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
9076 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
9077
9078 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
9079 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
9080 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
9081 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
9082 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
9083 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
9084 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
9085 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
9086
9087 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
9088
9089       </div>
9090       <div class="tags">
9091
9092
9093         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9094
9095
9096       </div>
9097     </div>
9098     <div class="padding"></div>
9099
9100     <div class="entry">
9101       <div class="title">
9102         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
9103       </div>
9104       <div class="date">
9105         27th May 2010
9106       </div>
9107       <div class="body">
9108         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
9109 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
9110 issues are known and should be solved:
9111
9112 <p><ul>
9113
9114 <li>The wicd package seen to
9115 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
9116 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
9117 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
9118 seem to be on the case.</li>
9119
9120 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
9121 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
9122 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
9123 maintainer is on the case.</li>
9124
9125 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
9126 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
9127 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
9128 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
9129 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
9130 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
9131 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
9132 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
9133
9134 </ul></p>
9135
9136 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
9137 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
9138 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
9139 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
9140
9141 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9142 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9143 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9144 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9145
9146 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
9147
9148       </div>
9149       <div class="tags">
9150
9151
9152         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9153
9154
9155       </div>
9156     </div>
9157     <div class="padding"></div>
9158
9159     <div class="entry">
9160       <div class="title">
9161         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
9162       </div>
9163       <div class="date">
9164         22nd May 2010
9165       </div>
9166       <div class="body">
9167         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
9168 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
9169 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
9170 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
9171
9172 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
9173 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
9174 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
9175 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
9176 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
9177 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
9178 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
9179 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
9180 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
9181 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
9182 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
9183 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
9184 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
9185 going to work.</p>
9186
9187 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
9188 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
9189 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
9190 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
9191 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
9192 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
9193 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
9194 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
9195 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
9196 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
9197 Edu.</p>
9198
9199 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
9200 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
9201 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
9202 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
9203 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
9204 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
9205
9206 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
9207 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
9208
9209       </div>
9210       <div class="tags">
9211
9212
9213         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9214
9215
9216       </div>
9217     </div>
9218     <div class="padding"></div>
9219
9220     <div class="entry">
9221       <div class="title">
9222         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
9223       </div>
9224       <div class="date">
9225         14th May 2010
9226       </div>
9227       <div class="body">
9228         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
9229 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
9230 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
9231 expected, if I am to believe the
9232 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
9233 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
9234 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
9235 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
9236 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
9237 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
9238 version.</p>
9239
9240 More information about
9241 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9242 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
9243 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
9244 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
9245
9246 <blockquote><pre>
9247 CONCURRENCY=none
9248 </pre></blockquote>
9249
9250 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9251 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9252 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9253 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9254
9255       </div>
9256       <div class="tags">
9257
9258
9259         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9260
9261
9262       </div>
9263     </div>
9264     <div class="padding"></div>
9265
9266     <div class="entry">
9267       <div class="title">
9268         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
9269       </div>
9270       <div class="date">
9271         14th May 2010
9272       </div>
9273       <div class="body">
9274         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
9275 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
9276 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
9277 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
9278 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
9279 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
9280 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
9281 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
9282
9283 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
9284 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
9285 this on the collector host:</p>
9286
9287 <blockquote><pre>
9288 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
9289 </pre></blockquote>
9290
9291 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
9292 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
9293
9294 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
9295 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
9296 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
9297 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
9298 written yet.</p>
9299
9300       </div>
9301       <div class="tags">
9302
9303
9304         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
9305
9306
9307       </div>
9308     </div>
9309     <div class="padding"></div>
9310
9311     <div class="entry">
9312       <div class="title">
9313         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
9314       </div>
9315       <div class="date">
9316         13th May 2010
9317       </div>
9318       <div class="body">
9319         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
9320 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
9321 has been
9322 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
9323
9324 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
9325 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
9326 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
9327 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
9328 based boot system.  Tollef is
9329 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
9330 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
9331 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
9332 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
9333 at the moment do not.</p>
9334
9335 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
9336 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
9337 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
9338 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
9339 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
9340 way forward.</p>
9341
9342 <p>In the mean time, based on the
9343 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
9344 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
9345 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
9346 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
9347 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
9348 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
9349 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
9350 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
9351
9352       </div>
9353       <div class="tags">
9354
9355
9356         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9357
9358
9359       </div>
9360     </div>
9361     <div class="padding"></div>
9362
9363     <div class="entry">
9364       <div class="title">
9365         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
9366       </div>
9367       <div class="date">
9368          6th May 2010
9369       </div>
9370       <div class="body">
9371         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
9372 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
9373 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
9374 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
9375 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9376 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
9377 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
9378
9379 <blockquote><pre>
9380 CONCURRENCY=makefile
9381 </pre></blockquote>
9382
9383 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
9384 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
9385 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
9386 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
9387 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
9388 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
9389 make this happen.</p>
9390
9391 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
9392 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
9393 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
9394 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
9395 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
9396
9397 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
9398 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
9399 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
9400 fix the remaining issues.</p>
9401
9402 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9403 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9404 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9405 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9406
9407       </div>
9408       <div class="tags">
9409
9410
9411         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9412
9413
9414       </div>
9415     </div>
9416     <div class="padding"></div>
9417
9418     <div class="entry">
9419       <div class="title">
9420         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
9421       </div>
9422       <div class="date">
9423         27th July 2009
9424       </div>
9425       <div class="body">
9426         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
9427 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
9428 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
9429 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
9430 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
9431 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
9432 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
9433
9434 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
9435 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
9436 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
9437
9438       </div>
9439       <div class="tags">
9440
9441
9442         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9443
9444
9445       </div>
9446     </div>
9447     <div class="padding"></div>
9448
9449     <div class="entry">
9450       <div class="title">
9451         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
9452       </div>
9453       <div class="date">
9454         22nd July 2009
9455       </div>
9456       <div class="body">
9457         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
9458 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
9459 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
9460 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
9461 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
9462 the package up to date.</p>
9463
9464 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
9465 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
9466 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
9467 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
9468 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
9469 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
9470 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
9471 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
9472 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
9473 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
9474 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
9475 working on the future release.</p>
9476
9477 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
9478 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
9479
9480       </div>
9481       <div class="tags">
9482
9483
9484         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9485
9486
9487       </div>
9488     </div>
9489     <div class="padding"></div>
9490
9491     <div class="entry">
9492       <div class="title">
9493         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
9494       </div>
9495       <div class="date">
9496         24th June 2009
9497       </div>
9498       <div class="body">
9499         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
9500 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
9501 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
9502 funded
9503 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
9504 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
9505 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
9506 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
9507 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
9508 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
9509
9510 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
9511 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
9512 boot:</p>
9513
9514 <ul>
9515
9516 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
9517
9518 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
9519    clock is in UTC.</li>
9520
9521 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
9522    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9523    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
9524
9525 </ul>
9526
9527 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
9528 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
9529 Villegas</a>.
9530
9531 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
9532 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
9533 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
9534 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
9535 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
9536 using this.</p>
9537
9538 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
9539 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
9540 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
9541 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
9542 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
9543 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
9544 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
9545
9546       </div>
9547       <div class="tags">
9548
9549
9550         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9551
9552
9553       </div>
9554     </div>
9555     <div class="padding"></div>
9556
9557     <div class="entry">
9558       <div class="title">
9559         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
9560       </div>
9561       <div class="date">
9562         17th May 2009
9563       </div>
9564       <div class="body">
9565         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
9566 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
9567 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
9568 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
9569 dager siden kom
9570 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
9571 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
9572 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
9573 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
9574 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
9575
9576 <blockquote>
9577 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
9578 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
9579 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
9580 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
9581 </blockquote>
9582
9583 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
9584 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
9585 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
9586 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
9587 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
9588
9589 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
9590 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
9591 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
9592
9593       </div>
9594       <div class="tags">
9595
9596
9597         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
9598
9599
9600       </div>
9601     </div>
9602     <div class="padding"></div>
9603
9604     <div class="entry">
9605       <div class="title">
9606         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
9607       </div>
9608       <div class="date">
9609          7th May 2009
9610       </div>
9611       <div class="body">
9612         <p>Kom over
9613 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
9614 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
9615 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
9616 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
9617 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
9618 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
9619 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
9620
9621       </div>
9622       <div class="tags">
9623
9624
9625         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9626
9627
9628       </div>
9629     </div>
9630     <div class="padding"></div>
9631
9632     <div class="entry">
9633       <div class="title">
9634         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
9635       </div>
9636       <div class="date">
9637          2nd May 2009
9638       </div>
9639       <div class="body">
9640         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
9641 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
9642 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
9643 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
9644 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
9645 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
9646 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
9647 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
9648 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
9649 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
9650 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
9651 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
9652 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
9653 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
9654 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
9655 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
9656 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
9657 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
9658 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
9659 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
9660
9661 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
9662 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
9663 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
9664 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
9665 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
9666 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
9667 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
9668 betydelige.</p>
9669
9670       </div>
9671       <div class="tags">
9672
9673
9674         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
9675
9676
9677       </div>
9678     </div>
9679     <div class="padding"></div>
9680
9681     <div class="entry">
9682       <div class="title">
9683         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
9684       </div>
9685       <div class="date">
9686          2nd May 2009
9687       </div>
9688       <div class="body">
9689         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
9690 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
9691 do not yet know them.</p>
9692
9693 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
9694 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
9695 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
9696 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
9697 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
9698 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
9699 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
9700 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
9701 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
9702 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
9703 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
9704
9705 <p>The second one is
9706 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
9707 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
9708 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
9709 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
9710 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
9711 and the company behind it is running
9712 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
9713 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
9714 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
9715 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
9716 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
9717 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
9718 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
9719 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
9720
9721 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
9722 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
9723 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
9724 surrounded by today.</p>
9725
9726       </div>
9727       <div class="tags">
9728
9729
9730         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>.
9731
9732
9733       </div>
9734     </div>
9735     <div class="padding"></div>
9736
9737     <div class="entry">
9738       <div class="title">
9739         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
9740       </div>
9741       <div class="date">
9742         28th April 2009
9743       </div>
9744       <div class="body">
9745         <p>Julien Blache
9746 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
9747 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
9748 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
9749 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
9750 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
9751 properties.</p>
9752
9753       </div>
9754       <div class="tags">
9755
9756
9757         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9758
9759
9760       </div>
9761     </div>
9762     <div class="padding"></div>
9763
9764     <div class="entry">
9765       <div class="title">
9766         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
9767       </div>
9768       <div class="date">
9769         30th March 2009
9770       </div>
9771       <div class="body">
9772         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
9773 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
9774 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
9775 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
9776 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
9777 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
9778 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
9779 application.</p>
9780
9781 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
9782 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
9783 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
9784 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
9785 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
9786 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
9787 blocked from doing so.</p>
9788
9789 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
9790 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
9791 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
9792 requirements change.</p>
9793
9794 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
9795 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
9796 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
9797
9798       </div>
9799       <div class="tags">
9800
9801
9802         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
9803
9804
9805       </div>
9806     </div>
9807     <div class="padding"></div>
9808
9809     <div class="entry">
9810       <div class="title">
9811         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
9812       </div>
9813       <div class="date">
9814         29th March 2009
9815       </div>
9816       <div class="body">
9817         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
9818 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
9819 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
9820 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
9821 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
9822 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
9823 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
9824 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
9825 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
9826 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
9827 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
9828 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
9829 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
9830 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
9831 now. :)</p>
9832
9833       </div>
9834       <div class="tags">
9835
9836
9837         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9838
9839
9840       </div>
9841     </div>
9842     <div class="padding"></div>
9843
9844     <div class="entry">
9845       <div class="title">
9846         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
9847       </div>
9848       <div class="date">
9849         29th March 2009
9850       </div>
9851       <div class="body">
9852         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
9853 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
9854 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
9855 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
9856 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
9857 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
9858
9859 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
9860 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
9861 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
9862 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
9863 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
9864 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
9865 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
9866 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
9867 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
9868 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
9869 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
9870 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
9871 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
9872
9873 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
9874 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
9875 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
9876 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
9877
9878 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
9879 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
9880
9881 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
9882 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
9883 new IETF work group?</p>
9884
9885       </div>
9886       <div class="tags">
9887
9888
9889         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9890
9891
9892       </div>
9893     </div>
9894     <div class="padding"></div>
9895
9896     <div class="entry">
9897       <div class="title">
9898         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
9899       </div>
9900       <div class="date">
9901         15th February 2009
9902       </div>
9903       <div class="body">
9904         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
9905 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
9906 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
9907 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
9908 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
9909 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
9910 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
9911 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
9912 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
9913 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
9914 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
9915 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
9916
9917       </div>
9918       <div class="tags">
9919
9920
9921         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
9922
9923
9924       </div>
9925     </div>
9926     <div class="padding"></div>
9927
9928     <div class="entry">
9929       <div class="title">
9930         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
9931       </div>
9932       <div class="date">
9933          7th December 2008
9934       </div>
9935       <div class="body">
9936         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
9937 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
9938 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
9939 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
9940 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
9941 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
9942 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
9943 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
9944
9945 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
9946 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
9947 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
9948 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
9949 of these cards.</p>
9950
9951       </div>
9952       <div class="tags">
9953
9954
9955         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
9956
9957
9958       </div>
9959     </div>
9960     <div class="padding"></div>
9961
9962     <div class="entry">
9963       <div class="title">
9964         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
9965       </div>
9966       <div class="date">
9967         25th November 2008
9968       </div>
9969       <div class="body">
9970         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
9971 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
9972 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
9973 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
9974 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
9975 notes are available on
9976 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
9977 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
9978 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
9979 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
9980 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
9981 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
9982 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
9983 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
9984 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
9985
9986 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
9987 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
9988
9989       </div>
9990       <div class="tags">
9991
9992
9993         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9994
9995
9996       </div>
9997     </div>
9998     <div class="padding"></div>
9999
10000     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
10001     <div id="sidebar">
10002
10003
10004
10005 <h2>Archive</h2>
10006 <ul>
10007
10008 <li>2016
10009 <ul>
10010
10011 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
10012
10013 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
10014
10015 </ul></li>
10016
10017 <li>2015
10018 <ul>
10019
10020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
10021
10022 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
10023
10024 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
10025
10026 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
10027
10028 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
10029
10030 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
10031
10032 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
10033
10034 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
10035
10036 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
10037
10038 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
10039
10040 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
10041
10042 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10043
10044 </ul></li>
10045
10046 <li>2014
10047 <ul>
10048
10049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
10050
10051 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
10052
10053 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
10054
10055 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
10056
10057 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
10058
10059 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
10060
10061 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
10062
10063 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
10064
10065 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
10066
10067 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
10068
10069 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10070
10071 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
10072
10073 </ul></li>
10074
10075 <li>2013
10076 <ul>
10077
10078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
10079
10080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
10081
10082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
10083
10084 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
10085
10086 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10087
10088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
10089
10090 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
10091
10092 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
10093
10094 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
10095
10096 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
10097
10098 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
10099
10100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10101
10102 </ul></li>
10103
10104 <li>2012
10105 <ul>
10106
10107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
10108
10109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
10110
10111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
10112
10113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
10114
10115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
10116
10117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
10118
10119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
10120
10121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
10122
10123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
10124
10125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
10126
10127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
10128
10129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
10130
10131 </ul></li>
10132
10133 <li>2011
10134 <ul>
10135
10136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
10137
10138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
10139
10140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
10141
10142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
10143
10144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
10145
10146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
10147
10148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
10149
10150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
10151
10152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
10153
10154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
10155
10156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10157
10158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
10159
10160 </ul></li>
10161
10162 <li>2010
10163 <ul>
10164
10165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
10166
10167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
10168
10169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
10170
10171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
10172
10173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10174
10175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
10176
10177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
10178
10179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
10180
10181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
10182
10183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
10184
10185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
10186
10187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
10188
10189 </ul></li>
10190
10191 <li>2009
10192 <ul>
10193
10194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
10195
10196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
10197
10198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
10199
10200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
10201
10202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10203
10204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
10205
10206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
10207
10208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
10209
10210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
10211
10212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
10213
10214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10215
10216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10217
10218 </ul></li>
10219
10220 <li>2008
10221 <ul>
10222
10223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
10224
10225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
10226
10227 </ul></li>
10228
10229 </ul>
10230
10231
10232
10233 <h2>Tags</h2>
10234 <ul>
10235
10236  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
10237
10238  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
10239
10240  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
10241
10242  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
10243
10244  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
10245
10246  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
10247
10248  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
10249
10250  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
10251
10252  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (120)</a></li>
10253
10254  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (154)</a></li>
10255
10256  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
10257
10258  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
10259
10260  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (20)</a></li>
10261
10262  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
10263
10264  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (302)</a></li>
10265
10266  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
10267
10268  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
10269
10270  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (25)</a></li>
10271
10272  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
10273
10274  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
10275
10276  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
10277
10278  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
10279
10280  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (11)</a></li>
10281
10282  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
10283
10284  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
10285
10286  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
10287
10288  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
10289
10290  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
10291
10292  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
10293
10294  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (37)</a></li>
10295
10296  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (7)</a></li>
10297
10298  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (273)</a></li>
10299
10300  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
10301
10302  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (22)</a></li>
10303
10304  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
10305
10306  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (58)</a></li>
10307
10308  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
10309
10310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
10311
10312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
10313
10314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
10315
10316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
10317
10318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
10319
10320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
10321
10322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
10323
10324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
10325
10326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (45)</a></li>
10327
10328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
10329
10330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
10331
10332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (48)</a></li>
10333
10334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
10335
10336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
10337
10338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (36)</a></li>
10339
10340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
10341
10342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
10343
10344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
10345
10346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (55)</a></li>
10347
10348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
10349
10350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
10351
10352 </ul>
10353
10354
10355     </div>
10356     <p style="text-align: right">
10357  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
10358 </p>
10359
10360   </body>
10361 </html>