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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 "english".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html">Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         18th December 2012
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>A few days ago I came across
  32 <a href="http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
  33 Hess</a> describing <a href="http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger</a> and
  34 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
  35 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
  36 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
  37 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
  38 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
  39 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
  40 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
  41
  42 are at least <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
  43 different implementations</a> able to read the format.  An example
  44 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
  45 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:</p>
  46
  47 <blockquote><pre>
  48 2004-05-27 Book Store
  49       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
  50       Liabilities:Visa
  51 </pre></blockquote>
  52
  53 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
  54 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
  55 <a href="http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
  56 Spang</a>,
  57 <a href="http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
  58 Keen</a>,
  59 <a href="http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
  60 Cantino</a> and
  61 <a href="http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
  62 Ip</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
  63 <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
  64 M. Kuhn</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
  65 recommendations fitting my need.</p>
  66
  67 <p>The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger</a>
  68 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
  69 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger</a>
  70 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
  71 seemed the best choice to get started.</p>
  72
  73 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
  74 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper</a> for
  75 <a href="http://www.lodo.no/">LODO</a>, the accounting system used by
  76 the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> association, and started to
  77 play with the data set.  I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
  78 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
  79 using the "<tt>ledger balance</tt>" command.  But I will have to
  80 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
  81 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
  82
  83       </div>
  84       <div class="tags">
  85
  86
  87         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
  88
  89
  90       </div>
  91     </div>
  92     <div class="padding"></div>
  93
  94     <div class="entry">
  95       <div class="title">
  96         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html">Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC</a>
  97       </div>
  98       <div class="date">
  99          6th December 2012
 100       </div>
 101       <div class="body">
 102         <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of
 103 Oslo</a>, we use the
 104 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/">Cerebrum user
 105 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
 106 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
 107 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a> API, but
 108 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
 109 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
 110 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
 111 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
 112 Python.</p>
 113
 114 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
 115 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/">bofh
 116 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
 117 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
 118 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html">a
 119 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
 120
 121 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
 122 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
 123 user currently logged in:</p>
 124
 125 <blockquote><pre>
 126 #!/usr/bin/env python
 127 import getpass
 128 import xmlrpclib
 129 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
 130 username = getpass.getuser()
 131 password = getpass.getpass()
 132 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
 133 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
 134 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
 135 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
 136 result = server.logout(sessionid)
 137 print result
 138 </pre></blockquote>
 139
 140 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
 141 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.</p>
 142
 143       </div>
 144       <div class="tags">
 145
 146
 147         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
 148
 149
 150       </div>
 151     </div>
 152     <div class="padding"></div>
 153
 154     <div class="entry">
 155       <div class="title">
 156         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html">Why isn't the value of copyright taxed?</a>
 157       </div>
 158       <div class="date">
 159         17th November 2012
 160       </div>
 161       <div class="body">
 162         <p>While working on a
 163 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
 164 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a> (76% done),
 165 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
 166 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
 167 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
 168 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.</p>
 169
 170 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
 171 <a href="http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
 172 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
 173 by John Perry Barlow</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
 174 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
 175 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
 176 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
 177 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
 178 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I'm sharing the idea here to
 179 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
 180 arguments.</p>
 181
 182 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
 183 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
 184 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
 185 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
 186 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
 187 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
 188 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
 189 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?</p>
 190
 191 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
 192 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
 193 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
 194 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
 195 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
 196 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
 197 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
 198 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
 199 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
 200 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
 201 correct right holder.</p>
 202
 203 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
 204 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
 205 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
 206 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
 207 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
 208 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
 209 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
 210 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
 211 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
 212 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
 213 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
 214 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
 215 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
 216 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.</p>
 217
 218 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
 219 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
 220 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .</p>
 221
 222 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
 223 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.</p>
 224
 225       </div>
 226       <div class="tags">
 227
 228
 229         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
 230
 231
 232       </div>
 233     </div>
 234     <div class="padding"></div>
 235
 236     <div class="entry">
 237       <div class="title">
 238         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</a>
 239       </div>
 240       <div class="date">
 241         14th November 2012
 242       </div>
 243       <div class="body">
 244         <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a
 245 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
 246 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
 247 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
 248 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
 249 the people behind the German
 250 "<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>"
 251 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
 252 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
 253
 254 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 255
 256 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
 257 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
 258 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
 259
 260 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
 261 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
 262 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
 263 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
 264 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
 265 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p>
 266
 267 <p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
 268 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
 269 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
 270 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
 271 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
 272 relationship management and the communication processes in the
 273 project.</p>
 274
 275 <p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
 276 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
 277 and a yoga teacher.</p>
 278
 279 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 280 project?</strong></p>
 281
 282 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p>
 283
 284 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
 285 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
 286 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
 287 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
 288 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
 289 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
 290 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
 291 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
 292 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
 293 parents.</p>
 294
 295 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
 296 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
 297 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
 298 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
 299 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
 300 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
 301 Germany.</p>
 302
 303 <p>For information about our school project you can read
 304 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
 305 interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p>
 306
 307 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 308 Edu?</strong></p>
 309
 310 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
 311 answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p>
 312
 313 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
 314 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
 315 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
 316 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
 317 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
 318 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
 319 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
 320 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
 321 teachers, parents...</p>
 322
 323 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 324 Edu?</strong></p>
 325
 326 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
 327 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
 328
 329 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
 330 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
 331 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
 332 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
 333 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
 334
 335 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
 336 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
 337 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
 338 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
 339 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
 340 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
 341 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
 342
 343 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 344
 345 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
 346 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
 347 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
 348 my N900 running with Maemo.</p>
 349
 350 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 351 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 352
 353 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
 354 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
 355 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
 356 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
 357 strategy has three crucial pillars:</p>
 358
 359 <ul>
 360
 361 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
 362 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
 363 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li>
 364
 365 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
 366 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
 367 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
 368 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
 369 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
 370 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
 371 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li>
 372
 373 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
 374 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
 375 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
 376 offer to become more and more independent from us.</li>
 377
 378 </ul>
 379
 380       </div>
 381       <div class="tags">
 382
 383
 384         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 385
 386
 387       </div>
 388     </div>
 389     <div class="padding"></div>
 390
 391     <div class="entry">
 392       <div class="title">
 393         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html">The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin</a>
 394       </div>
 395       <div class="date">
 396          4th November 2012
 397       </div>
 398       <div class="body">
 399         <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
 400 <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
 401 a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and
 402 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>.  It is interesting to
 403 see how a member of the bitcoin community
 404 <a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
 405 the report</a>.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
 406 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
 407 competition.  My thoughts go to the
 408 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with
 409 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
 410 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
 411 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
 412 powerful forces to work against it.</p>
 413
 414 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
 415 that the community already seem to have
 416 <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
 417 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>.  Not very surprising, given
 418 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
 419 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
 420 wealth is available.</p>
 421
 422       </div>
 423       <div class="tags">
 424
 425
 426         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</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>.
 427
 428
 429       </div>
 430     </div>
 431     <div class="padding"></div>
 432
 433     <div class="entry">
 434       <div class="title">
 435         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html">12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick</a>
 436       </div>
 437       <div class="date">
 438         26th October 2012
 439       </div>
 440       <div class="body">
 441         <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
 442 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
 443 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
 444 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn
 445 make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>.  NUUG
 446 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
 447 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
 448 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
 449 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
 450 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the
 451 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
 452 it every time.</p>
 453
 454 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
 455 article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from
 456 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
 457 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
 458 Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also
 459 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available
 460 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
 461 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
 462 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
 463 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
 464 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
 465 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
 466
 467 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
 468 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
 469 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
 470 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
 471 article: First the unplanned outage:
 472
 473 <blockquote><pre>
 474 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
 475 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
 476 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
 477 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
 478 Duration:    40 minutes
 479 Scope:       Exchange 2003
 480 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
 481              a cluster failover.
 482
 483 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
 484              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
 485 Technician:  [xxx]
 486 </pre></blockquote>
 487
 488 Next the planned outage:
 489
 490 <blockquote><pre>
 491 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
 492 Severity:    Major (Planned)
 493 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
 494 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
 495 Duration:    10 hours
 496 Scope:       H2 Transport
 497 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
 498              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
 499              4510s.
 500 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
 501              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
 502              connectivity.
 503 Technician:  [xxx]
 504 </pre></blockquote>
 505
 506 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
 507 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
 508 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
 509 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
 510 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
 511 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
 512 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
 513
 514 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
 515 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
 516 university too.  We do register
 517 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned
 518 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
 519 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
 520 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
 521 for other sites to consider too?</p>
 522
 523       </div>
 524       <div class="tags">
 525
 526
 527         Tags: <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>.
 528
 529
 530       </div>
 531     </div>
 532     <div class="padding"></div>
 533
 534     <div class="entry">
 535       <div class="title">
 536         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html">Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation</a>
 537       </div>
 538       <div class="date">
 539         22nd October 2012
 540       </div>
 541       <div class="body">
 542         <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
 543 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how
 544 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
 545 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>.  If a real book store did
 546 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
 547 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
 548 background information is available in Norwegian from
 549 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>.
 550 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
 551 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
 552 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
 553 willing to
 554 <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html">
 555 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
 556 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
 557 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
 558 sounded like
 559 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon
 560 would never do that again</a>.  And here we are, three years
 561 later.</p>
 562
 563 <p>And thought this action is
 564 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against
 565 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
 566 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
 567 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
 568 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
 569 rights.</p>
 570
 571 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
 572 unacceptable terms.  For example
 573 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
 574 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
 575 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet
 576 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
 577 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
 578
 579 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
 580 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
 581 restored the account of the user, as reported by
 582 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a>
 583 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>.
 584 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
 585 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
 586 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
 587 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
 588 reading two opinions from
 589 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon
 590 Phipps</a> and
 591 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen
 592 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
 593 details about the original story.</p>
 594
 595       </div>
 596       <div class="tags">
 597
 598
 599         Tags: <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/personvern">personvern</a>.
 600
 601
 602       </div>
 603     </div>
 604     <div class="padding"></div>
 605
 606     <div class="entry">
 607       <div class="title">
 608         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
 609       </div>
 610       <div class="date">
 611         18th October 2012
 612       </div>
 613       <div class="body">
 614         <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
 615 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
 616 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
 617 across a marvellous drawing by
 618 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a>
 619 visualising some of what is going on.
 620
 621 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html">
 622 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p>
 623
 624 <blockquote>
 625 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 626 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
 627 </blockquote>
 628
 629 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
 630 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
 631 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
 632 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the
 633 Panopticom</a>, and can not help help to think that we are slowly
 634 transforming our society to a huge Panopticom on our own.</p>
 635
 636       </div>
 637       <div class="tags">
 638
 639
 640         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 641
 642
 643       </div>
 644     </div>
 645     <div class="padding"></div>
 646
 647     <div class="entry">
 648       <div class="title">
 649         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
 650       </div>
 651       <div class="date">
 652         12th October 2012
 653       </div>
 654       <div class="body">
 655         <p>Thanks to a blog post by
 656 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html">Eddy
 657 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
 658 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
 659 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
 660 <a href="http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
 661 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions</a>, the producer
 662 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
 663 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
 664 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
 665 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
 666 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
 667 matter".</p>
 668
 669 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
 670 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
 671 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
 672 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
 673 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
 674 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
 675 to argue its side.</p>
 676
 677 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
 678 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
 679 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
 680 effect</a> can make it rethink its strategy.</p>
 681
 682 <p>What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
 683 <a href="http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
 684 victims of detoxification</a>.</p>
 685
 686       </div>
 687       <div class="tags">
 688
 689
 690         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis</a>.
 691
 692
 693       </div>
 694     </div>
 695     <div class="padding"></div>
 696
 697     <div class="entry">
 698       <div class="title">
 699         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html">Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?</a>
 700       </div>
 701       <div class="date">
 702          3rd October 2012
 703       </div>
 704       <div class="body">
 705         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
 706 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
 707 the computer science book collection available in his local
 708 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
 709 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
 710 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
 711 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
 712 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
 713 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
 714 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
 715 recently published books.</p>
 716
 717 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
 718 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
 719 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
 720 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
 721 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
 722 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
 723 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
 724 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
 725 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
 726 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
 727 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
 728 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
 729 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
 730 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
 731 for the library that evening.</p>
 732
 733 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
 734 going to know that for example
 735 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
 736 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
 737 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
 738 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
 739 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
 740 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
 741 book right away.</p>
 742
 743       </div>
 744       <div class="tags">
 745
 746
 747         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 748
 749
 750       </div>
 751     </div>
 752     <div class="padding"></div>
 753
 754     <div class="entry">
 755       <div class="title">
 756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture</a>
 757       </div>
 758       <div class="date">
 759         23rd September 2012
 760       </div>
 761       <div class="body">
 762         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
 763 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
 764 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
 765 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
 766 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
 767 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
 768
 769 When I started, I
 770 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
 771 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
 772 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
 773 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
 774 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
 775 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
 776 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
 777
 778 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
 779
 780 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
 781 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
 782 the project files currently available from
 783 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
 784
 785 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
 786 the updated
 787 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
 788 and
 789 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
 790 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
 791 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
 792 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
 793
 794       </div>
 795       <div class="tags">
 796
 797
 798         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
 799
 800
 801       </div>
 802     </div>
 803     <div class="padding"></div>
 804
 805     <div class="entry">
 806       <div class="title">
 807         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
 808       </div>
 809       <div class="date">
 810         17th September 2012
 811       </div>
 812       <div class="body">
 813         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
 814 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
 815 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
 816 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
 817 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
 818 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
 819 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
 820
 821 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 822
 823 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
 824 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
 825 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
 826 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
 827 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
 828 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
 829 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
 830 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
 831 training is anyway very important</p>
 832
 833 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
 834 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
 835 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
 836 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
 837 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
 838
 839 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 840 project?</strong></p>
 841
 842 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
 843 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
 844 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
 845 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
 846 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
 847 hole.</p>
 848
 849 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 850 Edu?</strong></p>
 851
 852 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
 853 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
 854 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
 855 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
 856 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
 857 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
 858 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
 859 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
 860 hassle.</p>
 861
 862 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 863 Edu?</strong></p>
 864
 865 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
 866 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
 867 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
 868 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
 869 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
 870 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
 871 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
 872 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
 873
 874 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 875
 876 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
 877 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
 878 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
 879 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
 880 has the same...</p>
 881
 882 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
 883 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
 884 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
 885 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
 886
 887 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 888 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 889
 890 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
 891 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
 892 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
 893
 894 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
 895 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
 896 don't.</p>
 897
 898 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
 899 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
 900 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
 901 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
 902 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
 903 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
 904 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
 905
 906       </div>
 907       <div class="tags">
 908
 909
 910         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 911
 912
 913       </div>
 914     </div>
 915     <div class="padding"></div>
 916
 917     <div class="entry">
 918       <div class="title">
 919         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
 920       </div>
 921       <div class="date">
 922         15th September 2012
 923       </div>
 924       <div class="body">
 925         <p>After the
 926 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
 927 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
 928 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
 929 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
 930 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
 931 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
 932 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
 933 was
 934 <a href="http://ietf.10.n7.nabble.com/New-Non-WG-Mailing-List-video-codec-Video-codec-BoF-discussion-list-td119548.html">created 2012-08-20</a>.  It is intended to discuss the topic and if a
 935 formal working group should be formed.</p>
 936
 937 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
 938 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
 939 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
 940 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
 941 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
 942 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
 943 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
 944 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
 945
 946 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
 947 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
 948 IETF.</p>
 949
 950       </div>
 951       <div class="tags">
 952
 953
 954         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</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>.
 955
 956
 957       </div>
 958     </div>
 959     <div class="padding"></div>
 960
 961     <div class="entry">
 962       <div class="title">
 963         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
 964       </div>
 965       <div class="date">
 966         12th September 2012
 967       </div>
 968       <div class="body">
 969         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
 970 publication of of
 971 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
 972 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
 973 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
 974 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
 975 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
 976 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
 977 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
 978 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
 979 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
 980 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
 981
 982 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
 983 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
 984 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
 985 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
 986
 987 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
 988 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
 989
 990       </div>
 991       <div class="tags">
 992
 993
 994         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</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>.
 995
 996
 997       </div>
 998     </div>
 999     <div class="padding"></div>
1000
1001     <div class="entry">
1002       <div class="title">
1003         <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>
1004       </div>
1005       <div class="date">
1006          7th September 2012
1007       </div>
1008       <div class="body">
1009         <p>As I
1010 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
1011 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
1012 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
1013 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
1014 repository for the project</a>.</p>
1015
1016 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
1017 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
1018 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
1019 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
1020
1021 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
1022 PostScript formats at
1023 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
1024 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
1025
1026       </div>
1027       <div class="tags">
1028
1029
1030         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>.
1031
1032
1033       </div>
1034     </div>
1035     <div class="padding"></div>
1036
1037     <div class="entry">
1038       <div class="title">
1039         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html">Free software forced Microsoft to open Office (and don't forget Officeshots)</a>
1040       </div>
1041       <div class="date">
1042         23rd August 2012
1043       </div>
1044       <div class="body">
1045         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
1046 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
1047 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
1048 revisit the great site
1049 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
1050 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
1051 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
1052
1053       </div>
1054       <div class="tags">
1055
1056
1057         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1058
1059
1060       </div>
1061     </div>
1062     <div class="padding"></div>
1063
1064     <div class="entry">
1065       <div class="title">
1066         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Half way there with translated docbook version of Free Culture</a>
1067       </div>
1068       <div class="date">
1069         17th August 2012
1070       </div>
1071       <div class="body">
1072         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
1073 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
1074 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
1075 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
1076 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
1077 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
1078 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
1079 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
1080 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
1081 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
1082 summer I
1083 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
1084 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
1085 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
1086
1087 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
1088 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
1089 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
1090 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
1091 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
1092 progress:</p>
1093
1094 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
1095
1096 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
1097 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
1098 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
1099 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
1100 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
1101 english version of the docbook source.</p>
1102
1103 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
1104 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
1105 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
1106 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
1107 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
1108 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
1109 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
1110 project files currently available from <a
1111 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
1112
1113 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
1114 the updated
1115 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
1116 and
1117 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
1118 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
1119 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
1120 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
1121
1122       </div>
1123       <div class="tags">
1124
1125
1126         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1127
1128
1129       </div>
1130     </div>
1131     <div class="padding"></div>
1132
1133     <div class="entry">
1134       <div class="title">
1135         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html">Notes on language codes for Norwegian docbook processing...</a>
1136       </div>
1137       <div class="date">
1138         10th August 2012
1139       </div>
1140       <div class="body">
1141         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
1142 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
1143 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
1144 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
1145 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
1146 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
1147 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
1148 case for the language
1149 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
1150 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
1151
1152 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
1153 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
1154 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
1155 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
1156 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
1157
1158 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
1159 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
1160 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
1161 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
1162 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
1163 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
1164 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
1165 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
1166 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
1167 alias for 'nb'.</p>
1168
1169 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
1170 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
1171 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
1172 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
1173 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
1174 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
1175 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
1176 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
1177 at the same time. :(</p>
1178
1179 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
1180 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
1181 processors. :(</p>
1182
1183 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
1184
1185       </div>
1186       <div class="tags">
1187
1188
1189         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1190
1191
1192       </div>
1193     </div>
1194     <div class="padding"></div>
1195
1196     <div class="entry">
1197       <div class="title">
1198         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
1199       </div>
1200       <div class="date">
1201         31st July 2012
1202       </div>
1203       <div class="body">
1204         <p>I tried to send this text to the
1205 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
1206 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
1207 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
1208 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
1209 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
1210 out.</p>
1211
1212 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
1213 learning curve at the moment.</p>
1214
1215 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
1216 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
1217 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
1218 available from
1219 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
1220 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
1221 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
1222 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
1223 Squeeze.</p>
1224
1225 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
1226 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
1227 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
1228 problems.</p>
1229
1230 <ul>
1231
1232 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
1233    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
1234    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
1235    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
1236    index references spanning several pages (See
1237    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
1238    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
1239    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
1240
1241 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
1242    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
1243    #683163</a>).</li>
1244
1245 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
1246    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
1247    footnote and text body, see
1248    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
1249    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
1250    refs listed are not right).</li>
1251
1252 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
1253
1254 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
1255    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
1256
1257 </ul>
1258
1259 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
1260 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
1261 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
1262
1263 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
1264
1265       </div>
1266       <div class="tags">
1267
1268
1269         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
1270
1271
1272       </div>
1273     </div>
1274     <div class="padding"></div>
1275
1276     <div class="entry">
1277       <div class="title">
1278         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">Free Culture in Norwegian - 5 chapters done, 74 percent left to do</a>
1279       </div>
1280       <div class="date">
1281         21st July 2012
1282       </div>
1283       <div class="body">
1284         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
1285 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
1286 norwegian version</a> of the book
1287 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
1288 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
1289 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
1290 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
1291 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
1292
1293 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
1294 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
1295 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
1296 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
1297 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
1298 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
1299 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
1300 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
1301 print. :)</p>
1302
1303 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
1304 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
1305 language.</p>
1306
1307       </div>
1308       <div class="tags">
1309
1310
1311         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</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>.
1312
1313
1314       </div>
1315     </div>
1316     <div class="padding"></div>
1317
1318     <div class="entry">
1319       <div class="title">
1320         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html">Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a>
1321       </div>
1322       <div class="date">
1323         16th July 2012
1324       </div>
1325       <div class="body">
1326         <p>I am currently working on a
1327 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
1328 to translate</a> the book
1329 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
1330 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
1331 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
1332 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
1333 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
1334 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
1335 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
1336
1337 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
1338 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
1339 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
1340 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
1341 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
1342 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
1343 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
1344 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
1345 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
1346
1347       </div>
1348       <div class="tags">
1349
1350
1351         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</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>.
1352
1353
1354       </div>
1355     </div>
1356     <div class="padding"></div>
1357
1358     <div class="entry">
1359       <div class="title">
1360         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
1361       </div>
1362       <div class="date">
1363          9th July 2012
1364       </div>
1365       <div class="body">
1366         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
1367 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
1368 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
1369 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
1370 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
1371 to adjust and scale the just released
1372 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
1373 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
1374 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
1375
1376 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1377
1378 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
1379 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
1380 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
1381 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
1382 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
1383 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
1384 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
1385 perspective when working with IT.</p>
1386
1387 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1388 project?</strong></p>
1389
1390 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
1391 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
1392 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
1393 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
1394 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
1395 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
1396
1397 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1398 Edu?</strong></p>
1399
1400 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
1401 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
1402 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
1403 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
1404 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
1405 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
1406 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
1407 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
1408 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
1409 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
1410 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
1411 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
1412 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
1413 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
1414 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
1415 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
1416 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
1417 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
1418 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
1419 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
1420 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
1421 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
1422 quicker to update.
1423
1424 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1425 Edu?</strong></p>
1426
1427 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
1428 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
1429 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
1430 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
1431 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
1432 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
1433
1434 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
1435 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
1436 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
1437 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
1438 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
1439 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
1440 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
1441 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
1442 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
1443 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
1444 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
1445 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
1446 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
1447 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
1448 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
1449
1450 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
1451 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
1452 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
1453 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
1454 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
1455 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
1456 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
1457 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
1458
1459 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
1460 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
1461 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
1462 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
1463 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
1464 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
1465 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
1466 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
1467 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
1468 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
1469 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
1470 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
1471 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
1472 sound file.</p>
1473
1474 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
1475 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
1476 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
1477 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
1478 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
1479 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
1480 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
1481 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
1482 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
1483
1484 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1485
1486 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
1487 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
1488 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
1489 )</p>
1490
1491 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1492 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1493
1494 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
1495 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
1496 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
1497 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
1498 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
1499 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
1500 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
1501 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
1502 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
1503 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
1504 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
1505 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
1506 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
1507 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
1508 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
1509
1510 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
1511 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
1512 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
1513 management with Airtime</a>,
1514 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
1515 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
1516 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
1517 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
1518 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
1519
1520       </div>
1521       <div class="tags">
1522
1523
1524         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
1525
1526
1527       </div>
1528     </div>
1529     <div class="padding"></div>
1530
1531     <div class="entry">
1532       <div class="title">
1533         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
1534       </div>
1535       <div class="date">
1536          8th July 2012
1537       </div>
1538       <div class="body">
1539         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
1540 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
1541 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
1542 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
1543 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
1544 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
1545 Steinberg in his blog post
1546 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
1547 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
1548 spending of your tax money.</p>
1549
1550 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
1551 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
1552 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
1553 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
1554 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
1555 purchases.</p>
1556
1557       </div>
1558       <div class="tags">
1559
1560
1561         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1562
1563
1564       </div>
1565     </div>
1566     <div class="padding"></div>
1567
1568     <div class="entry">
1569       <div class="title">
1570         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
1571       </div>
1572       <div class="date">
1573          7th July 2012
1574       </div>
1575       <div class="body">
1576         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
1577 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
1578 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
1579 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
1580 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
1581 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
1582 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
1583 receive.  The software is
1584
1585 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
1586 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
1587 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
1588 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
1589 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
1590 Windows</a>.</p>
1591
1592 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
1593 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
1594
1595 <p><ul>
1596
1597   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
1598     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
1599
1600   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
1601     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
1602     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
1603     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
1604     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
1605     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
1606     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
1607     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
1608     </li>
1609
1610   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
1611     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
1612
1613   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
1614     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
1615
1616   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
1617     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
1618
1619   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
1620
1621   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
1622     formats </li>
1623
1624   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
1625     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
1626     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
1627     (as separate sets)</li>
1628
1629   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
1630     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
1631     percentage)</li>
1632
1633   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
1634     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
1635     memory):
1636     <ul>
1637       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
1638       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
1639       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
1640       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
1641       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
1642       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
1643       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
1644       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
1645       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
1646       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
1647           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
1648           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
1649           activity)</li>
1650       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
1651       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
1652     </ul></li>
1653
1654   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
1655     <ul>
1656       <li>Break periods</li>
1657       <li>For teacher(s):
1658         <ul>
1659           <li>Not available periods</li>
1660           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
1661           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
1662           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
1663           <li>Min hours daily</li>
1664           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
1665
1666           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
1667             days per week</li>
1668         </ul></li>
1669       <li>For students (sets):
1670         <ul>
1671           <li>Not available periods</li>
1672           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
1673           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
1674           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
1675           <li>Min hours daily</li>
1676           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
1677
1678           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
1679             days per week</li>
1680         </ul></li>
1681       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
1682         <ul>
1683           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
1684           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
1685           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
1686           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
1687           <li>End(s) students day</li>
1688           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
1689           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
1690             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
1691           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
1692           <li>Not overlapping</li>
1693           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
1694           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
1695         </ul></li>
1696     </ul></li>
1697
1698   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
1699     <ul>
1700       <li>Room not available periods</li>
1701       <li>For teacher(s):
1702         <ul>
1703           <li>Home room(s)</li>
1704           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
1705           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
1706         </ul>
1707       </li>
1708
1709       <li>For students (sets):
1710         <ul>
1711           <li>Home room(s)</li>
1712           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
1713           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
1714         </ul>
1715       </li>
1716       <li>Preferred room(s):
1717         <ul>
1718           <li>For a subject</li>
1719           <li>For an activity tag</li>
1720           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
1721           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
1722         </ul>
1723       </li>
1724
1725       <li>For a set of activities:
1726         <ul>
1727           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
1728         </ul>
1729       </li>
1730     </ul>
1731   </li>
1732 </ul></p>
1733
1734 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
1735 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
1736 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
1737 manually, check it out.
1738
1739 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
1740 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
1741 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
1742 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
1743 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
1744 section</a>.</p>
1745
1746       </div>
1747       <div class="tags">
1748
1749
1750         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1751
1752
1753       </div>
1754     </div>
1755     <div class="padding"></div>
1756
1757     <div class="entry">
1758       <div class="title">
1759         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html">Can Zimbra be told to send autoreplies to the From: address?</a>
1760       </div>
1761       <div class="date">
1762          3rd July 2012
1763       </div>
1764       <div class="body">
1765         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
1766 project (Norwegian version of
1767 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
1768 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
1769 a problem with the municipalities using
1770 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
1771 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
1772 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
1773 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
1774 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
1775 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
1776 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
1777 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
1778 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
1779 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
1780 the From: header.</p>
1781
1782 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
1783 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
1784 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
1785 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
1786 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
1787 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
1788 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
1789 behaviour.</p>
1790
1791 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
1792 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
1793 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
1794 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
1795 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
1796 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
1797 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
1798
1799       </div>
1800       <div class="tags">
1801
1802
1803         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</a>.
1804
1805
1806       </div>
1807     </div>
1808     <div class="padding"></div>
1809
1810     <div class="entry">
1811       <div class="title">
1812         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html">Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</a>
1813       </div>
1814       <div class="date">
1815         26th June 2012
1816       </div>
1817       <div class="body">
1818         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
1819 another interview with the people behind
1820 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
1821 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
1822 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
1823 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
1824 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
1825 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
1826 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
1827
1828 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1829
1830 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
1831 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
1832 ICT in schools</p>
1833
1834 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
1835 project?</strong></p>
1836
1837 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
1838 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
1839 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
1840 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
1841
1842 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1843 Edu?</strong></p>
1844
1845 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
1846 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
1847 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
1848 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
1849
1850 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
1851 Edu?</strong></p>
1852
1853 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
1854 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
1855 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
1856 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
1857 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
1858 technologies in school.</p>
1859
1860 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1861
1862 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
1863 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
1864 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
1865
1866 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1867 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1868
1869 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
1870 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
1871 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
1872 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
1873
1874 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
1875 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
1876 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
1877
1878 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
1879 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
1880 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
1881 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
1882 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
1883 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
1884 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
1885 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
1886 working there.</p>
1887
1888       </div>
1889       <div class="tags">
1890
1891
1892         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
1893
1894
1895       </div>
1896     </div>
1897     <div class="padding"></div>
1898
1899     <div class="entry">
1900       <div class="title">
1901         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
1902       </div>
1903       <div class="date">
1904         24th June 2012
1905       </div>
1906       <div class="body">
1907         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
1908 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
1909 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
1910 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
1911 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
1912 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
1913 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
1914 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
1915 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
1916 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
1917 missing in my book.</p>
1918
1919 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
1920 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
1921 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
1922 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
1923 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
1924 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
1925 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
1926
1927       </div>
1928       <div class="tags">
1929
1930
1931         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>.
1932
1933
1934       </div>
1935     </div>
1936     <div class="padding"></div>
1937
1938     <div class="entry">
1939       <div class="title">
1940         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html">Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</a>
1941       </div>
1942       <div class="date">
1943         11th June 2012
1944       </div>
1945       <div class="body">
1946         <p>During my work on
1947 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
1948 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
1949 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
1950 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
1951 explanation.</p>
1952
1953 <p><ul>
1954
1955 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
1956 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
1957 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
1958 system depend on tasksel tasks in
1959 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
1960 installation.</li>
1961
1962 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
1963 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
1964 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
1965 at least try to enable it for these services:
1966 <ul>
1967
1968   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
1969     quotas.</li>
1970   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
1971   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
1972   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
1973   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
1974   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
1975
1976 </ul></li>
1977
1978 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
1979 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
1980 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
1981 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
1982
1983 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
1984 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
1985 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
1986
1987 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
1988 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
1989 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
1990 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
1991 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
1992 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
1993
1994 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
1995 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
1996 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
1997 in Wheezy.
1998
1999 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
2000 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
2001 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
2002
2003 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
2004 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
2005 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
2006 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
2007
2008 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
2009 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
2010 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
2011 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
2012
2013 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
2014 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
2015 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
2016
2017 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
2018 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
2019 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
2020
2021 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
2022 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
2023 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
2024 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
2025 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
2026
2027 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
2028 <ul>
2029
2030 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
2031 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
2032 <li>and probably more?</li>
2033 </ul></li>
2034
2035 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
2036 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
2037 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
2038 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
2039 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
2040 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
2041 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
2042 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
2043
2044
2045 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
2046 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
2047 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
2048 use.</li>
2049
2050 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
2051 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
2052 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
2053 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
2054 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
2055
2056 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
2057 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
2058 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
2059 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
2060 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
2061 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
2062
2063 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
2064 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
2065 There are at least three implementations,
2066 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
2067 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
2068 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
2069 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
2070 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
2071 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
2072 given room.</li>
2073
2074 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
2075 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
2076 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
2077 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
2078 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
2079 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
2080 investigated.</li>
2081
2082 </ul></p>
2083
2084 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
2085 version.</p>
2086
2087       </div>
2088       <div class="tags">
2089
2090
2091         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2092
2093
2094       </div>
2095     </div>
2096     <div class="padding"></div>
2097
2098     <div class="entry">
2099       <div class="title">
2100         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</a>
2101       </div>
2102       <div class="date">
2103          9th June 2012
2104       </div>
2105       <div class="body">
2106         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
2107 <a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year">TV
2108 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
2109 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
2110 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
2111 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
2112 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
2113 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
2114 be willing to pay for.</p>
2115
2116 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
2117 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
2118 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
2119 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
2120 Orwell</a>.</p>
2121
2122       </div>
2123       <div class="tags">
2124
2125
2126         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2127
2128
2129       </div>
2130     </div>
2131     <div class="padding"></div>
2132
2133     <div class="entry">
2134       <div class="title">
2135         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html">Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status</a>
2136       </div>
2137       <div class="date">
2138          6th June 2012
2139       </div>
2140       <div class="body">
2141         <p>A few days ago
2142 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
2143 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
2144 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
2145 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
2146 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
2147 code for HP, Dell and IBM
2148 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
2149 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
2150 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
2151 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
2152 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
2153
2154 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
2155 output:
2156
2157 <blockquote><pre>
2158 % GET <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1">https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1</a>
2159 supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
2160 %
2161 </pre></blockquote>
2162
2163 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
2164 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
2165 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
2166
2167       </div>
2168       <div class="tags">
2169
2170
2171         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
2172
2173
2174       </div>
2175     </div>
2176     <div class="padding"></div>
2177
2178     <div class="entry">
2179       <div class="title">
2180         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
2181       </div>
2182       <div class="date">
2183          2nd June 2012
2184       </div>
2185       <div class="body">
2186         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
2187 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
2188 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
2189 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
2190 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
2191 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
2192
2193 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2194
2195 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
2196 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
2197 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
2198 by Angela).</p>
2199
2200 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
2201 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
2202 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
2203 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
2204 becoming an osteopath.</p>
2205
2206 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
2207 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
2208 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
2209 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
2210 skills with communication skills.</p>
2211
2212 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2213 project?</strong></p>
2214
2215 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
2216 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
2217 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
2218 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
2219 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
2220
2221 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
2222 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
2223 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
2224 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
2225 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
2226 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
2227 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
2228 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
2229 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
2230
2231 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
2232 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
2233 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
2234
2235 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
2236
2237 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
2238 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
2239 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
2240 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
2241 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
2242 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
2243 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
2244 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
2245 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
2246 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
2247 point.</p>
2248
2249 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
2250 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
2251 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
2252 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
2253 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
2254 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
2255
2256 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
2257 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
2258 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
2259 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
2260 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
2261 spare time.</p>
2262
2263 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
2264 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
2265 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
2266 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
2267 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
2268
2269 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
2270 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
2271 avoidance do exist.</p>
2272
2273 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
2274 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
2275 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
2276 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
2277 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
2278 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
2279 and probably a gain for all.</p>
2280
2281 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2282 Edu?</strong></p>
2283
2284 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
2285 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
2286 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
2287 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
2288 project communication, honest communication within the group of
2289 developers, etc.</p>
2290
2291 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2292 Edu?</strong></p>
2293
2294 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
2295
2296 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
2297 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
2298 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
2299 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
2300 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
2301 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
2302 contribute).</p>
2303
2304 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
2305 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
2306 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
2307 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
2308 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
2309 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
2310 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
2311 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
2312 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
2313 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
2314
2315 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2316
2317 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
2318
2319 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
2320 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
2321 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
2322
2323 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
2324 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
2325 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
2326 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
2327
2328 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
2329 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
2330 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
2331 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
2332 whiteboard.</p>
2333
2334 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
2335
2336 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2337 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2338
2339 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
2340 enrol people.</p>
2341
2342       </div>
2343       <div class="tags">
2344
2345
2346         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
2347
2348
2349       </div>
2350     </div>
2351     <div class="padding"></div>
2352
2353     <div class="entry">
2354       <div class="title">
2355         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</a>
2356       </div>
2357       <div class="date">
2358          1st June 2012
2359       </div>
2360       <div class="body">
2361         <p>A few years ago I wrote
2362 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
2363 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
2364 I have learned from colleges here at the
2365 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
2366 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
2367 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
2368 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
2369 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
2370
2371 <p><pre>
2372 use strict;
2373 use warnings;
2374 use SOAP::Lite;
2375 use Data::Dumper;
2376 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
2377 my $App = 'test';
2378 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
2379 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
2380 my $s = SOAP::Lite
2381     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
2382     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
2383     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
2384     ;
2385 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
2386     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
2387     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
2388     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
2389 );
2390 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
2391 </pre></p>
2392
2393 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
2394
2395 <p><pre>
2396 $VAR1 = {
2397           'Asset' => {
2398                      'Entitlements' => {
2399                                        'EntitlementData' => [
2400                                                             {
2401                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
2402                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
2403                                                               'Provider' => '',
2404                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
2405                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
2406                                                             },
2407                                                             {
2408                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
2409                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
2410                                                               'Provider' => '',
2411                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
2412                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
2413                                                             },
2414                                                             {
2415                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
2416                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
2417                                                               'Provider' => '',
2418                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
2419                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
2420                                                             }
2421                                                           ]
2422                                      },
2423                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
2424                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
2425                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
2426                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
2427                                           'Buid' => '2323',
2428                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
2429                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
2430                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
2431                                         }
2432                    }
2433         };
2434 </pre></p>
2435
2436 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
2437 service outside the
2438 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
2439 documentation</a>, and according to
2440 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
2441 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
2442 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
2443
2444 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
2445 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
2446
2447       </div>
2448       <div class="tags">
2449
2450
2451         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
2452
2453
2454       </div>
2455     </div>
2456     <div class="padding"></div>
2457
2458     <div class="entry">
2459       <div class="title">
2460         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
2461       </div>
2462       <div class="date">
2463         31st May 2012
2464       </div>
2465       <div class="body">
2466         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
2467 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
2468 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
2469 running Debian Squeeze, where
2470 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
2471 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
2472 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
2473 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
2474 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
2475 another day.</p>
2476
2477 <p>After calibration, I get a
2478 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
2479 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
2480 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
2481 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
2482 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
2483 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
2484 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
2485 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
2486 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
2487 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
2488 and a simple</p>
2489
2490 <p><pre>
2491 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
2492 </pre></p>
2493
2494 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
2495 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
2496 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
2497 enough for now.</p>
2498
2499       </div>
2500       <div class="tags">
2501
2502
2503         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2504
2505
2506       </div>
2507     </div>
2508     <div class="padding"></div>
2509
2510     <div class="entry">
2511       <div class="title">
2512         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
2513       </div>
2514       <div class="date">
2515         27th May 2012
2516       </div>
2517       <div class="body">
2518         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
2519 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
2520 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
2521 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
2522 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
2523 since then, helping to make sure the
2524 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
2525 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
2526
2527 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2528
2529 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
2530 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
2531 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
2532 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
2533 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
2534 our computer network.</p>
2535
2536 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
2537 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
2538 (4 months).</p>
2539
2540 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2541 project?</strong></p>
2542
2543 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
2544 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
2545 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
2546 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
2547 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
2548 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
2549 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
2550 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
2551 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
2552 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
2553 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
2554 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
2555 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
2556 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
2557
2558 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2559 Edu?</strong></p>
2560
2561 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
2562 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
2563 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
2564 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
2565 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
2566 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
2567 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
2568 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
2569
2570 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2571 Edu?</strong></p>
2572
2573 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
2574 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
2575 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
2576 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
2577 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
2578 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
2579 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
2580 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
2581 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
2582 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
2583 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
2584 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
2585
2586 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2587
2588 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
2589 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
2590 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
2591
2592 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2593 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2594
2595 <p><ol>
2596
2597 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
2598 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
2599 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
2600 developing.</li>
2601
2602 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
2603 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
2604 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
2605 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
2606 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
2607
2608 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
2609 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
2610 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
2611
2612 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
2613 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
2614 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
2615 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
2616
2617 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
2618 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
2619 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
2620
2621 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
2622
2623 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
2624 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
2625 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
2626 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
2627
2628 </ol></p>
2629
2630       </div>
2631       <div class="tags">
2632
2633
2634         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
2635
2636
2637       </div>
2638     </div>
2639     <div class="padding"></div>
2640
2641     <div class="entry">
2642       <div class="title">
2643         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
2644       </div>
2645       <div class="date">
2646         26th May 2012
2647       </div>
2648       <div class="body">
2649         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
2650 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
2651 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
2652 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
2653 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
2654
2655 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
2656 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm</a>
2657 comment:</p>
2658
2659 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
2660 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
2661 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
2662 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
2663 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
2664 </blockquote></p>
2665
2666 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
2667 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
2668 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
2669 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
2670 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
2671 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
2672 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
2673 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
2674 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
2675 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
2676 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
2677 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
2678 of wasted effort.</p>
2679
2680 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
2681 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
2682 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
2683
2684 <p>See
2685 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
2686 and
2687 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
2688 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
2689 </blockquote></p>
2690
2691       </div>
2692       <div class="tags">
2693
2694
2695         Tags: <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>.
2696
2697
2698       </div>
2699     </div>
2700     <div class="padding"></div>
2701
2702     <div class="entry">
2703       <div class="title">
2704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html">ColorHug - USB and free software based screen color calibration</a>
2705       </div>
2706       <div class="date">
2707         18th May 2012
2708       </div>
2709       <div class="body">
2710         <p>In january, I
2711 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
2712 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
2713 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
2714 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
2715 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
2716 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
2717 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
2718 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
2719 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
2720 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
2721
2722 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
2723 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
2724 drivers. :)</p>
2725
2726       </div>
2727       <div class="tags">
2728
2729
2730         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2731
2732
2733       </div>
2734     </div>
2735     <div class="padding"></div>
2736
2737     <div class="entry">
2738       <div class="title">
2739         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
2740       </div>
2741       <div class="date">
2742         13th May 2012
2743       </div>
2744       <div class="body">
2745         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
2746 publish another interview with the people behind
2747 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
2748 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
2749 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
2750 details get right before release.
2751
2752 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
2753
2754 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
2755 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
2756 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
2757 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
2758 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
2759 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
2760 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
2761 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
2762
2763 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
2764 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
2765 home since 2006.</p>
2766
2767 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2768 project?</strong></p>
2769
2770 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
2771 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
2772 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
2773 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
2774 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
2775 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
2776
2777 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
2778 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
2779 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
2780 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
2781 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
2782 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
2783 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
2784 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
2785 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
2786 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
2787 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
2788 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
2789 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
2790 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
2791 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
2792 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
2793
2794 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2795 Edu?</strong></p>
2796
2797 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
2798 for me as today.</p>
2799
2800 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
2801
2802 <p><ul>
2803
2804 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
2805 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
2806
2807 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
2808 cost.</li>
2809
2810 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
2811 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
2812 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
2813 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
2814 server</li>
2815
2816 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
2817 school.</li>
2818
2819 </ul></p>
2820
2821 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
2822 came up in this way:</p>
2823
2824 <p><ul>
2825
2826 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
2827 now.</li>
2828
2829 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
2830 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
2831 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
2832
2833 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
2834 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
2835 interfaces used in the past.</li>
2836
2837 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
2838 different needs.</li>
2839
2840 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
2841
2842 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
2843 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
2844 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
2845
2846 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
2847 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
2848
2849 </ul></p>
2850
2851 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2852 Edu?</strong></p>
2853
2854 <p><ul>
2855
2856 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
2857 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
2858 whole municipality areas.</li>
2859
2860 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
2861 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
2862 politicians.</li>
2863
2864 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
2865
2866 </ul></p>
2867
2868 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
2869
2870 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
2871 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
2872 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
2873 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
2874 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
2875 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
2876
2877 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
2878 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
2879 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
2880 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
2881 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
2882
2883 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2884 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
2885
2886 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
2887 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
2888 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
2889
2890       </div>
2891       <div class="tags">
2892
2893
2894         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
2895
2896
2897       </div>
2898     </div>
2899     <div class="padding"></div>
2900
2901     <div class="entry">
2902       <div class="title">
2903         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
2904       </div>
2905       <div class="date">
2906         30th April 2012
2907       </div>
2908       <div class="body">
2909         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
2910 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
2911
2912 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
2913 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
2914 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
2915 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
2916 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
2917 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
2918 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
2919 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
2920 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
2921 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
2922 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
2923 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
2924 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
2925 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
2926 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
2927 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
2928
2929 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
2930 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
2931 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
2932 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
2933 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
2934 finally found a Danish supplier
2935 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
2936 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
2937 days ago.</p>
2938
2939 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
2940 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
2941 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
2942 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
2943 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
2944 toys.</p>
2945
2946       </div>
2947       <div class="tags">
2948
2949
2950         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2951
2952
2953       </div>
2954     </div>
2955     <div class="padding"></div>
2956
2957     <div class="entry">
2958       <div class="title">
2959         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
2960       </div>
2961       <div class="date">
2962         26th April 2012
2963       </div>
2964       <div class="body">
2965         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
2966 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
2967 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
2968 that the video editor application included with
2969 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
2970 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
2971 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
2972
2973 <p><blockquote>
2974 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
2975 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
2976 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
2977 </blockquote></p>
2978
2979 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
2980
2981 <p><blockquote>
2982 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
2983 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
2984 </blockquote></p>
2985
2986 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
2987 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
2988 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
2989 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
2990 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
2991 video.  AMR is
2992 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
2993 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
2994 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
2995 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
2996 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
2997 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
2998 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
2999
3000 <p>I know why I prefer
3001 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
3002 standards</a> also for video.</p>
3003
3004       </div>
3005       <div class="tags">
3006
3007
3008         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</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>.
3009
3010
3011       </div>
3012     </div>
3013     <div class="padding"></div>
3014
3015     <div class="entry">
3016       <div class="title">
3017         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
3018       </div>
3019       <div class="date">
3020         19th April 2012
3021       </div>
3022       <div class="body">
3023         <p>Here in Norway, the
3024 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
3025 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
3026 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
3027 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
3028 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
3029 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
3030 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
3031 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
3032 on the same level.</p>
3033
3034 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
3035 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
3036 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
3037 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
3038 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
3039 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
3040 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
3041 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
3042 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
3043 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
3044 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
3045 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
3046 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
3047 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
3048 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
3049 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
3050 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
3051 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
3052
3053 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
3054 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
3055 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
3056 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
3057 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
3058 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
3059 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
3060 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
3061
3062 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
3063 from Simon Phipps
3064 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
3065 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
3066
3067 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
3068 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
3069 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
3070 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
3071 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
3072 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
3073 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
3074 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
3075 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
3076
3077       </div>
3078       <div class="tags">
3079
3080
3081         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3082
3083
3084       </div>
3085     </div>
3086     <div class="padding"></div>
3087
3088     <div class="entry">
3089       <div class="title">
3090         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
3091       </div>
3092       <div class="date">
3093         15th April 2012
3094       </div>
3095       <div class="body">
3096         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
3097 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
3098 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
3099 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
3100 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
3101 up in the recently released
3102 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
3103 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
3104
3105 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3106
3107 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
3108 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
3109 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
3110 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
3111 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
3112 information technology and science/technology.</p>
3113
3114 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3115 project?</strong></p>
3116
3117 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
3118 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
3119 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
3120 contributing.</p>
3121
3122 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3123 Edu?</strong></p>
3124
3125 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
3126 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
3127 Debian Project!</p>
3128
3129 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3130 Edu?</strong></p>
3131
3132 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
3133 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
3134 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
3135 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
3136 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
3137 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
3138 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
3139
3140 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
3141 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
3142
3143 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3144
3145 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
3146 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
3147 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
3148 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
3149
3150 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3151 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3152
3153 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
3154 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
3155 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
3156 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
3157 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
3158 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
3159 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
3160
3161 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
3162 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
3163 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
3164 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
3165 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
3166 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
3167 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
3168 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
3169
3170       </div>
3171       <div class="tags">
3172
3173
3174         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
3175
3176
3177       </div>
3178     </div>
3179     <div class="padding"></div>
3180
3181     <div class="entry">
3182       <div class="title">
3183         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
3184       </div>
3185       <div class="date">
3186          8th April 2012
3187       </div>
3188       <div class="body">
3189         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
3190 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
3191 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
3192 contributor to the
3193 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
3194 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
3195
3196 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3197
3198 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
3199 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
3200
3201 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3202 project?</strong></p>
3203
3204 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
3205 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
3206 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
3207 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
3208 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
3209 "localisation".</p>
3210
3211 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3212 Edu?</strong></p>
3213
3214 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3215 Edu?</strong></p>
3216
3217 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
3218 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
3219 education system.</p>
3220
3221 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
3222 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
3223 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
3224 money on the latest hardware.</p>
3225
3226 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3227
3228 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
3229 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
3230 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
3231
3232 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3233 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3234
3235 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
3236 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
3237 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
3238
3239       </div>
3240       <div class="tags">
3241
3242
3243         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
3244
3245
3246       </div>
3247     </div>
3248     <div class="padding"></div>
3249
3250     <div class="entry">
3251       <div class="title">
3252         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
3253       </div>
3254       <div class="date">
3255          6th April 2012
3256       </div>
3257       <div class="body">
3258         <p>Recently I have spent time with
3259 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
3260 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
3261 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
3262 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
3263 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
3264 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
3265 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
3266 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
3267
3268 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
3269 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
3270 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
3271 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
3272 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
3273 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
3274 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
3275 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
3276
3277 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
3278 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
3279 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
3280 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
3281 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
3282 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
3283 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
3284 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
3285
3286 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
3287 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
3288 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
3289 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
3290 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
3291 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
3292 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
3293 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
3294 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
3295 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
3296
3297 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
3298 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
3299 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
3300 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
3301
3302 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
3303 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
3304
3305       </div>
3306       <div class="tags">
3307
3308
3309         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3310
3311
3312       </div>
3313     </div>
3314     <div class="padding"></div>
3315
3316     <div class="entry">
3317       <div class="title">
3318         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
3319       </div>
3320       <div class="date">
3321          5th April 2012
3322       </div>
3323       <div class="body">
3324         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
3325 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
3326 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
3327 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
3328 for schools.  Check out his article
3329 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
3330 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
3331
3332       </div>
3333       <div class="tags">
3334
3335
3336         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3337
3338
3339       </div>
3340     </div>
3341     <div class="padding"></div>
3342
3343     <div class="entry">
3344       <div class="title">
3345         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
3346       </div>
3347       <div class="date">
3348          1st April 2012
3349       </div>
3350       <div class="body">
3351         <p>Germany is a core area for the
3352 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
3353 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
3354 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
3355
3356 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3357
3358 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
3359 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
3360 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
3361 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
3362 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
3363 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
3364 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
3365 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
3366
3367 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
3368 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
3369 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
3370 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
3371 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
3372 the end of April this year.</p>
3373
3374 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3375 project?</strong></p>
3376
3377 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
3378 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
3379 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
3380 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
3381 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
3382 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
3383 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
3384 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
3385 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
3386 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
3387 Skolelinux.</p>
3388
3389 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
3390 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
3391 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
3392 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
3393 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
3394 the admin teachers.</p>
3395
3396 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3397 Edu?</strong></p>
3398
3399 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
3400 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
3401 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
3402
3403 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
3404 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
3405 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
3406 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
3407 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
3408
3409 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3410 Edu?</strong></p>
3411
3412 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
3413
3414 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3415
3416 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
3417 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
3418 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
3419 LibreOffice.</p>
3420
3421 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3422 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3423
3424 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
3425 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
3426 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
3427
3428       </div>
3429       <div class="tags">
3430
3431
3432         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
3433
3434
3435       </div>
3436     </div>
3437     <div class="padding"></div>
3438
3439     <div class="entry">
3440       <div class="title">
3441         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html">Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</a>
3442       </div>
3443       <div class="date">
3444         25th March 2012
3445       </div>
3446       <div class="body">
3447         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
3448
3449 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
3450 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
3451 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
3452 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
3453 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
3454 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
3455 and download as a
3456 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
3457 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
3458
3459 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
3460   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
3461     <p>Download video as
3462       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
3463 </video></p>
3464
3465       </div>
3466       <div class="tags">
3467
3468
3469         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3470
3471
3472       </div>
3473     </div>
3474     <div class="padding"></div>
3475
3476     <div class="entry">
3477       <div class="title">
3478         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
3479       </div>
3480       <div class="date">
3481         19th March 2012
3482       </div>
3483       <div class="body">
3484         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
3485 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
3486 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
3487 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
3488 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
3489
3490 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3491
3492 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
3493 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
3494 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
3495 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
3496 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
3497 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
3498 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
3499 installations.</p>
3500
3501 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3502 project?</strong></p>
3503
3504 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
3505 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
3506 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
3507 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
3508 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
3509 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
3510 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
3511 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
3512 these things we decided to try it.</p>
3513
3514 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3515 Edu?</strong></p>
3516
3517 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
3518 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
3519 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
3520 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
3521 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
3522 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
3523 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
3524 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
3525
3526 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3527 Edu?</strong></p>
3528
3529 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
3530 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
3531 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
3532 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
3533 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
3534
3535 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3536
3537 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
3538 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
3539 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
3540 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
3541 that counts...)</p>
3542
3543 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3544 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3545
3546 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
3547 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
3548 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
3549 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
3550 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
3551 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
3552 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
3553 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
3554 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
3555 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
3556 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
3557
3558 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
3559 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
3560 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
3561
3562       </div>
3563       <div class="tags">
3564
3565
3566         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
3567
3568
3569       </div>
3570     </div>
3571     <div class="padding"></div>
3572
3573     <div class="entry">
3574       <div class="title">
3575         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
3576       </div>
3577       <div class="date">
3578         16th March 2012
3579       </div>
3580       <div class="body">
3581         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
3582 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
3583 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
3584 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
3585
3586 <ol>
3587
3588 <li>The documentation is written in a
3589 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
3590 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
3591 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
3592 docbook XML.</li>
3593
3594 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
3595 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
3596 with the translated text.</li>
3597
3598 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
3599 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
3600 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
3601 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
3602 images.</li>
3603
3604 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
3605 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
3606
3607 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
3608 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
3609
3610 </ol>
3611
3612 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
3613 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
3614 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
3615 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
3616 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
3617
3618 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
3619 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
3620 package</a>.</p>
3621
3622       </div>
3623       <div class="tags">
3624
3625
3626         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3627
3628
3629       </div>
3630     </div>
3631     <div class="padding"></div>
3632
3633     <div class="entry">
3634       <div class="title">
3635         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
3636       </div>
3637       <div class="date">
3638         11th March 2012
3639       </div>
3640       <div class="body">
3641         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
3642 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
3643 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
3644 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
3645 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
3646 you have not done so already.</p>
3647
3648 <p>I plan to present the new version at
3649 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
3650 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
3651 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
3652
3653       </div>
3654       <div class="tags">
3655
3656
3657         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3658
3659
3660       </div>
3661     </div>
3662     <div class="padding"></div>
3663
3664     <div class="entry">
3665       <div class="title">
3666         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
3667       </div>
3668       <div class="date">
3669          9th March 2012
3670       </div>
3671       <div class="body">
3672         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
3673 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
3674 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3675 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
3676 more international audience.</p>
3677
3678 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
3679 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
3680 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
3681 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
3682 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
3683 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
3684 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
3685
3686
3687 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3688
3689 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
3690 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
3691 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
3692 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
3693 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
3694 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
3695 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
3696 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
3697 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
3698 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
3699 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
3700
3701 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3702 project?</strong></p>
3703
3704 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
3705 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
3706 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
3707 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
3708 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
3709 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
3710 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
3711 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
3712 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
3713 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
3714 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
3715 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
3716 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
3717
3718 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3719 Edu?</strong></p>
3720
3721 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
3722 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
3723 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
3724 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
3725 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
3726 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
3727 Japan.</p>
3728
3729 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3730 Edu?</strong></p>
3731
3732 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
3733 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
3734 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
3735 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
3736 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
3737 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
3738 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
3739 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
3740 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
3741 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
3742 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
3743 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
3744 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
3745 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
3746 help.</p>
3747
3748 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3749
3750 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
3751 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
3752 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
3753 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
3754 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
3755 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
3756 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
3757 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
3758 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
3759 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
3760 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
3761
3762 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3763 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3764
3765 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
3766 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
3767 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
3768 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
3769 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
3770 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
3771 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
3772 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
3773 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
3774 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
3775 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
3776 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
3777
3778       </div>
3779       <div class="tags">
3780
3781
3782         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
3783
3784
3785       </div>
3786     </div>
3787     <div class="padding"></div>
3788
3789     <div class="entry">
3790       <div class="title">
3791         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html">Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</a>
3792       </div>
3793       <div class="date">
3794          7th March 2012
3795       </div>
3796       <div class="body">
3797         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
3798
3799 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
3800 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
3801 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
3802 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
3803 download as a
3804 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
3805 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
3806
3807 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
3808   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
3809     <p>Download video as
3810       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
3811 </video></p>
3812
3813       </div>
3814       <div class="tags">
3815
3816
3817         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3818
3819
3820       </div>
3821     </div>
3822     <div class="padding"></div>
3823
3824     <div class="entry">
3825       <div class="title">
3826         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
3827       </div>
3828       <div class="date">
3829          4th March 2012
3830       </div>
3831       <div class="body">
3832         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
3833 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3834 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
3835 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
3836 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
3837 need a software solution for your school.</p>
3838
3839       </div>
3840       <div class="tags">
3841
3842
3843         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3844
3845
3846       </div>
3847     </div>
3848     <div class="padding"></div>
3849
3850     <div class="entry">
3851       <div class="title">
3852         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html">Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded</a>
3853       </div>
3854       <div class="date">
3855          3rd March 2012
3856       </div>
3857       <div class="body">
3858         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
3859 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
3860 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
3861 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
3862 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
3863 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
3864 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
3865 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
3866 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
3867 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
3868 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
3869 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
3870 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
3871 year...</p>
3872
3873 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
3874 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
3875 name,
3876 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
3877 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
3878 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
3879 mean). I've been following
3880 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
3881 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
3882 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
3883 Check it out. :)</p>
3884
3885       </div>
3886       <div class="tags">
3887
3888
3889         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3890
3891
3892       </div>
3893     </div>
3894     <div class="padding"></div>
3895
3896     <div class="entry">
3897       <div class="title">
3898         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
3899       </div>
3900       <div class="date">
3901         27th February 2012
3902       </div>
3903       <div class="body">
3904         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
3905 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3906 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
3907 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
3908 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
3909 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
3910 need a software solution for your school.</p>
3911
3912       </div>
3913       <div class="tags">
3914
3915
3916         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3917
3918
3919       </div>
3920     </div>
3921     <div class="padding"></div>
3922
3923     <div class="entry">
3924       <div class="title">
3925         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
3926       </div>
3927       <div class="date">
3928         19th February 2012
3929       </div>
3930       <div class="body">
3931         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
3932 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
3933 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
3934 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
3935 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
3936 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
3937 solution for your school.</p>
3938
3939       </div>
3940       <div class="tags">
3941
3942
3943         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3944
3945
3946       </div>
3947     </div>
3948     <div class="padding"></div>
3949
3950     <div class="entry">
3951       <div class="title">
3952         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html">How to figure out which RAID disk to replace when it fail</a>
3953       </div>
3954       <div class="date">
3955         14th February 2012
3956       </div>
3957       <div class="body">
3958         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
3959 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
3960 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
3961 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
3962 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
3963 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
3964 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
3965 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
3966 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
3967
3968 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
3969 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
3970 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
3971 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
3972 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
3973
3974 <blockquote><pre>
3975 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
3976 do
3977     printf "Failed disk $d: "
3978     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
3979 done
3980 </blockquote></pre>
3981
3982 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
3983 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
3984
3985 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
3986
3987 <blockquote><pre>
3988 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
3989 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
3990 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
3991 </blockquote></pre>
3992
3993 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
3994 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
3995 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
3996 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
3997 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
3998 mounted inside my box.</p>
3999
4000 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
4001 Software RAID in the
4002 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
4003 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
4004 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
4005 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
4006 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
4007 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
4008
4009       </div>
4010       <div class="tags">
4011
4012
4013         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid</a>.
4014
4015
4016       </div>
4017     </div>
4018     <div class="padding"></div>
4019
4020     <div class="entry">
4021       <div class="title">
4022         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
4023       </div>
4024       <div class="date">
4025         13th February 2012
4026       </div>
4027       <div class="body">
4028         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
4029 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
4030 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
4031 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
4032 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
4033 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
4034 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
4035 change the global proxy setting by editing
4036 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
4037 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
4038
4039 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
4040 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
4041 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
4042
4043 <blockquote><pre>
4044 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
4045 {
4046    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
4047        isPlainHostName(host) ||
4048        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
4049       return "DIRECT";
4050    else
4051       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
4052 }
4053 </pre></blockquote>
4054
4055 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
4056
4057 <blockquote><pre>
4058 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
4059 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
4060 </pre></blockquote>
4061
4062 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
4063 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
4064 would be used for
4065 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
4066 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
4067 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
4068 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
4069 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
4070 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
4071 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
4072 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
4073 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
4074 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
4075
4076 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
4077 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
4078 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
4079 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
4080 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
4081 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
4082
4083 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
4084 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
4085 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
4086 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
4087 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
4088 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
4089 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
4090 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
4091 the network setup changes.</p>
4092
4093 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
4094 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
4095 draft</a> and a
4096 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
4097 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
4098
4099       </div>
4100       <div class="tags">
4101
4102
4103         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4104
4105
4106       </div>
4107     </div>
4108     <div class="padding"></div>
4109
4110     <div class="entry">
4111       <div class="title">
4112         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html">Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</a>
4113       </div>
4114       <div class="date">
4115          5th February 2012
4116       </div>
4117       <div class="body">
4118         <p>Since the Lenny version of
4119 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
4120 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
4121 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
4122 in the morning.  This is done using the
4123 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
4124
4125 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
4126 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
4127 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
4128 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
4129 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
4130 the
4131 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
4132 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
4133 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
4134 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
4135 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
4136
4137 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
4138 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
4139 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
4140 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
4141 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
4142 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
4143 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
4144
4145 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
4146 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
4147 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
4148 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
4149 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
4150
4151       </div>
4152       <div class="tags">
4153
4154
4155         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4156
4157
4158       </div>
4159     </div>
4160     <div class="padding"></div>
4161
4162     <div class="entry">
4163       <div class="title">
4164         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
4165       </div>
4166       <div class="date">
4167          4th February 2012
4168       </div>
4169       <div class="body">
4170         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
4171 publish the third beta version of
4172 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
4173 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
4174 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
4175 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
4176 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
4177 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
4178 on the project announcement list.</p>
4179
4180 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
4181 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
4182
4183 <ul>
4184
4185 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
4186   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
4187   the installation.</li>
4188
4189 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
4190   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
4191
4192 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
4193   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
4194   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
4195
4196 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
4197   for the local system administrator is created during installation
4198   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
4199   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
4200   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
4201   up to date on the system.</li>
4202
4203 </ul>
4204
4205 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
4206 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
4207 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
4208 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
4209
4210 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
4211 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
4212 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
4213 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
4214 will see you there?</p>
4215
4216       </div>
4217       <div class="tags">
4218
4219
4220         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4221
4222
4223       </div>
4224     </div>
4225     <div class="padding"></div>
4226
4227     <div class="entry">
4228       <div class="title">
4229         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
4230       </div>
4231       <div class="date">
4232         27th January 2012
4233       </div>
4234       <div class="body">
4235         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
4236 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
4237 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
4238 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
4239 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
4240 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
4241 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
4242
4243 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
4244 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
4245 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
4246 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
4247 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
4248 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
4249 not taken care of by this.</p>
4250
4251 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
4252 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
4253 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
4254 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
4255 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
4256 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
4257 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
4258 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
4259 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
4260 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
4261 firmware packages.</p>
4262
4263 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
4264 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
4265 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
4266 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
4267 initrd with extra firmware, the
4268 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
4269 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
4270 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
4271
4272 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
4273 network cards working.  For this,
4274 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
4275 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
4276 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
4277
4278 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
4279 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
4280 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
4281
4282 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
4283 try.</p>
4284
4285       </div>
4286       <div class="tags">
4287
4288
4289         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4290
4291
4292       </div>
4293     </div>
4294     <div class="padding"></div>
4295
4296     <div class="entry">
4297       <div class="title">
4298         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
4299       </div>
4300       <div class="date">
4301         25th January 2012
4302       </div>
4303       <div class="body">
4304         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
4305 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
4306 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
4307 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
4308 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
4309
4310 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
4311 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
4312 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
4313 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
4314 this is done, log on to the central server and run
4315 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
4316 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
4317 will look similar to this:</p>
4318
4319 <p><blockquote><pre>
4320 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
4321 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
4322 info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
4323
4324 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
4325
4326 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
4327 enter password: *******
4328 %
4329 </pre></blockquote></p>
4330
4331 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
4332 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
4333 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
4334 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
4335 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
4336 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
4337 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
4338 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
4339 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
4340 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
4341 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
4342 automatically.</p>
4343
4344 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
4345 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
4346
4347 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
4348 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
4349 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
4350
4351       </div>
4352       <div class="tags">
4353
4354
4355         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
4356
4357
4358       </div>
4359     </div>
4360     <div class="padding"></div>
4361
4362     <div class="entry">
4363       <div class="title">
4364         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
4365       </div>
4366       <div class="date">
4367         10th January 2012
4368       </div>
4369       <div class="body">
4370         <p>In the Squeeze version of
4371 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
4372 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
4373 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
4374 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
4375 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
4376 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
4377 first time.</p>
4378
4379 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
4380 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
4381 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
4382 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
4383
4384 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
4385 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
4386 new setting.</p>
4387
4388 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
4389 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
4390 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
4391
4392       </div>
4393       <div class="tags">
4394
4395
4396         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4397
4398
4399       </div>
4400     </div>
4401     <div class="padding"></div>
4402
4403     <div class="entry">
4404       <div class="title">
4405         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
4406       </div>
4407       <div class="date">
4408          7th January 2012
4409       </div>
4410       <div class="body">
4411         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
4412 the second beta version of
4413 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
4414 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
4415 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
4416 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
4417 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
4418 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
4419 on the project announcement list.</p>
4420
4421       </div>
4422       <div class="tags">
4423
4424
4425         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4426
4427
4428       </div>
4429     </div>
4430     <div class="padding"></div>
4431
4432     <div class="entry">
4433       <div class="title">
4434         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</a>
4435       </div>
4436       <div class="date">
4437          3rd January 2012
4438       </div>
4439       <div class="body">
4440         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
4441 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
4442 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
4443 interesting.</p>
4444
4445 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
4446 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
4447 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
4448 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
4449 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
4450 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
4451 wrap up its tasks.</p>
4452
4453 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
4454 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
4455 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
4456 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
4457 because I was typing.</P>
4458
4459 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
4460 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
4461 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
4462 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
4463 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
4464 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
4465 generate entropy.</p>
4466
4467 <p>The fix is in
4468 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
4469 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
4470 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
4471 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
4472
4473       </div>
4474       <div class="tags">
4475
4476
4477         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4478
4479
4480       </div>
4481     </div>
4482     <div class="padding"></div>
4483
4484     <div class="entry">
4485       <div class="title">
4486         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
4487       </div>
4488       <div class="date">
4489         21st November 2011
4490       </div>
4491       <div class="body">
4492         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
4493 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
4494 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
4495 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
4496 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
4497 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
4498 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
4499 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
4500 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
4501 the tools to do so.</p>
4502
4503 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
4504 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
4505 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
4506 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
4507
4508 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
4509 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
4510 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
4511 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
4512 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
4513 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
4514 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
4515 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
4516
4517 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
4518 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
4519 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
4520
4521 <p><pre>
4522 #!/usr/bin/perl
4523 use strict;
4524 use warnings;
4525 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
4526 BEGIN {
4527     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
4528     my %rhelmodules = (
4529         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
4530         );
4531     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
4532         eval "use $module;";
4533         if ($@) {
4534             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
4535             system("yum install -y $pkg");
4536             eval "use $module;";
4537         }
4538     }
4539 }
4540 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
4541
4542 upgrade_dell();
4543
4544 exit 0;
4545
4546 sub run_firmware_script {
4547     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
4548     unless ($script) {
4549         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
4550         exit 1
4551     }
4552     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
4553
4554     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
4555         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
4556     } else {
4557         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
4558     }
4559 }
4560
4561 sub run_firmware_scripts {
4562     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
4563     # Run firmware packages
4564     for my $dir (@dirs) {
4565         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
4566         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
4567         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
4568             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
4569             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
4570         }
4571         closedir $dh;
4572     }
4573 }
4574
4575 sub download {
4576     my $url = shift;
4577     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
4578     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
4579 }
4580
4581 sub upgrade_dell {
4582     my @dirs;
4583     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4584     chomp $product;
4585
4586     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
4587
4588         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
4589         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
4590
4591         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
4592             CLEANUP => 1
4593             );
4594         chdir($tmpdir);
4595         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
4596         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
4597         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
4598         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
4599         my $fwopts = "-q";
4600         if (@paths) {
4601             for my $url (@paths) {
4602                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
4603             }
4604             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
4605         } else {
4606             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4607             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4608         }
4609         chdir('/');
4610     } else {
4611         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4612         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4613     }
4614 }
4615
4616 sub fetch_dell_fw {
4617     my $path = shift;
4618     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
4619     download($url);
4620 }
4621
4622 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
4623 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
4624 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
4625 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
4626     my $filename = shift;
4627
4628     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4629     chomp $product;
4630     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
4631
4632     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
4633
4634     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
4635     my @paths;
4636     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
4637         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
4638         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
4639         my $oscode;
4640         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
4641             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
4642         } else {
4643             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
4644         }
4645         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
4646         {
4647             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
4648         }
4649     }
4650     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
4651         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
4652
4653         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
4654         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
4655
4656         my $cpath = $component->{path};
4657         for my $path (@paths) {
4658             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
4659                 push(@paths, $cpath);
4660             }
4661         }
4662     }
4663     return @paths;
4664 }
4665 </pre>
4666
4667 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
4668 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
4669 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
4670 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
4671 outdated.</p>
4672
4673       </div>
4674       <div class="tags">
4675
4676
4677         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>.
4678
4679
4680       </div>
4681     </div>
4682     <div class="padding"></div>
4683
4684     <div class="entry">
4685       <div class="title">
4686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html">Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</a>
4687       </div>
4688       <div class="date">
4689          7th October 2011
4690       </div>
4691       <div class="body">
4692         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
4693 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
4694 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
4695 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
4696 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
4697 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
4698 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
4699 models.</p>
4700
4701 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
4702 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
4703 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
4704 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
4705
4706 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
4707 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
4708 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
4709 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
4710 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
4711 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
4712 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
4713 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
4714 distributed.</p>
4715
4716 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
4717
4718 <ul>
4719
4720 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
4721   other relevant equipment.</li>
4722
4723 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
4724
4725 </ul>
4726
4727 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
4728 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
4729 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
4730 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
4731 books available.</p>
4732
4733 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
4734 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
4735 libraries. :)</p>
4736
4737       </div>
4738       <div class="tags">
4739
4740
4741         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
4742
4743
4744       </div>
4745     </div>
4746     <div class="padding"></div>
4747
4748     <div class="entry">
4749       <div class="title">
4750         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
4751       </div>
4752       <div class="date">
4753         17th September 2011
4754       </div>
4755       <div class="body">
4756         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
4757 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
4758 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
4759 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
4760 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
4761 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
4762 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
4763 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
4764
4765 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
4766
4767 <blockquote><pre>
4768 #!/bin/sh
4769 # apt-get install lsdvd
4770 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
4771 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
4772 </pre></blockquote>
4773
4774 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
4775 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
4776 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
4777 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
4778
4779 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
4780 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
4781 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
4782 back as an ISO.
4783
4784 <blockquote><pre>
4785 #!/bin/sh
4786 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
4787 set -e
4788 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
4789 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
4790 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
4791 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
4792 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
4793 </pre></blockquote>
4794
4795 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
4796
4797 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
4798 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
4799 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
4800 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
4801 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
4802
4803 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
4804 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
4805 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
4806 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
4807 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
4808 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
4809
4810       </div>
4811       <div class="tags">
4812
4813
4814         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
4815
4816
4817       </div>
4818     </div>
4819     <div class="padding"></div>
4820
4821     <div class="entry">
4822       <div class="title">
4823         <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>
4824       </div>
4825       <div class="date">
4826          4th August 2011
4827       </div>
4828       <div class="body">
4829         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
4830 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
4831 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
4832 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
4833 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
4834 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
4835 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
4836 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
4837 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
4838
4839 <p><blockquote>
4840 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
4841 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
4842 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
4843 </blockquote></p>
4844
4845 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
4846 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
4847 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
4848 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
4849 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
4850 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
4851 hard to explain.</p>
4852
4853 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
4854 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
4855 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
4856 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
4857 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
4858 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
4859 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
4860 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
4861 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
4862 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
4863 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
4864 mode).</p>
4865
4866 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
4867 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
4868 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
4869 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
4870 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
4871 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
4872 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
4873 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
4874 after visiting single user mode.</p>
4875
4876 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
4877 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
4878 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
4879 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
4880 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
4881 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
4882 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
4883 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
4884
4885 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
4886 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
4887 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
4888
4889       </div>
4890       <div class="tags">
4891
4892
4893         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>.
4894
4895
4896       </div>
4897     </div>
4898     <div class="padding"></div>
4899
4900     <div class="entry">
4901       <div class="title">
4902         <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>
4903       </div>
4904       <div class="date">
4905         30th July 2011
4906       </div>
4907       <div class="body">
4908         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
4909 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
4910 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
4911 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
4912 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
4913 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
4914 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
4915 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
4916 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
4917 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
4918 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
4919 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4920 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4921
4922 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4923 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4924 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4925 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4926 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4927 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4928 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4929 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4930 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4931
4932 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4933 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4934 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4935 is presented.</p>
4936
4937 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4938 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4939 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4940 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4941 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4942 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4943 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4944 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4945 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4946 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4947 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4948 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4949 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4950 find time to push this forward.</p>
4951
4952       </div>
4953       <div class="tags">
4954
4955
4956         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>.
4957
4958
4959       </div>
4960     </div>
4961     <div class="padding"></div>
4962
4963     <div class="entry">
4964       <div class="title">
4965         <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>
4966       </div>
4967       <div class="date">
4968         29th July 2011
4969       </div>
4970       <div class="body">
4971         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4972 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4973 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4974 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4975 issues.</p>
4976
4977 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4978 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4979 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4980
4981 <ol>
4982
4983 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4984 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4985 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4986 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4987 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4988 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4989 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4990 Debian.</li>
4991
4992 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4993 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4994 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4995 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4996 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4997 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4998 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4999 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5000 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5001 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
5002 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5003 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5004 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
5005
5006 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5007 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
5008 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5009 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
5010 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
5011 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5012 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
5013 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
5014 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5015 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
5016
5017 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
5018 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5019 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5020 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
5021 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
5022 latter behaviour.</li>
5023
5024 </ol>
5025
5026 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5027 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5028 it do not matter much.</p>
5029
5030 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5031 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
5032 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
5033
5034       </div>
5035       <div class="tags">
5036
5037
5038         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5039
5040
5041       </div>
5042     </div>
5043     <div class="padding"></div>
5044
5045     <div class="entry">
5046       <div class="title">
5047         <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>
5048       </div>
5049       <div class="date">
5050         26th July 2011
5051       </div>
5052       <div class="body">
5053         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
5054 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
5055 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
5056 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
5057 security support for a few years.</p>
5058
5059 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
5060 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
5061 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
5062 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
5063 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
5064 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
5065 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
5066 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
5067 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
5068 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
5069 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
5070 easier in the future.</p>
5071
5072 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
5073 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
5074 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
5075 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
5076 do not have time for.</p>
5077
5078       </div>
5079       <div class="tags">
5080
5081
5082         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>.
5083
5084
5085       </div>
5086     </div>
5087     <div class="padding"></div>
5088
5089     <div class="entry">
5090       <div class="title">
5091         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
5092       </div>
5093       <div class="date">
5094         20th June 2011
5095       </div>
5096       <div class="body">
5097         <p>Reading
5098 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
5099 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
5100 parts of the
5101 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
5102 and
5103 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
5104 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
5105 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
5106 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
5107
5108       </div>
5109       <div class="tags">
5110
5111
5112         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
5113
5114
5115       </div>
5116     </div>
5117     <div class="padding"></div>
5118
5119     <div class="entry">
5120       <div class="title">
5121         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html">Experimental Open311 API for the mySociety fixmystreet system</a>
5122       </div>
5123       <div class="date">
5124         30th April 2011
5125       </div>
5126       <div class="body">
5127         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
5128 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
5129 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
5130 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
5131 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
5132 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
5133 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
5134 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
5135 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
5136 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
5137
5138 <p>Where is it?  Visit
5139 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
5140 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
5141 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
5142 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
5143
5144       </div>
5145       <div class="tags">
5146
5147
5148         Tags: <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/open311">open311</a>.
5149
5150
5151       </div>
5152     </div>
5153     <div class="padding"></div>
5154
5155     <div class="entry">
5156       <div class="title">
5157         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html">Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</a>
5158       </div>
5159       <div class="date">
5160         29th April 2011
5161       </div>
5162       <div class="body">
5163         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
5164 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
5165 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
5166 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
5167 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
5168 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
5169 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
5170 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
5171 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
5172 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
5173 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
5174 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
5175 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
5176
5177 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
5178 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
5179 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
5180 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
5181 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
5182 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
5183 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
5184 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
5185 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
5186 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
5187 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
5188 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
5189 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
5190
5191 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
5192 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
5193 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
5194 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
5195 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
5196 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
5197 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
5198 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
5199 it.</p>
5200
5201 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
5202 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
5203 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
5204 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
5205 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
5206 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
5207 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
5208
5209 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
5210 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
5211 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
5212 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
5213 and range= options.</p>
5214
5215 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
5216 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
5217 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
5218 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
5219 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
5220 to best handle this.  I've noticed
5221 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
5222 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
5223 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
5224 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
5225
5226 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
5227 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
5228 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
5229 discussions instead of only
5230 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
5231 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
5232 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
5233 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
5234 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
5235 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
5236
5237       </div>
5238       <div class="tags">
5239
5240
5241         Tags: <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/open311">open311</a>.
5242
5243
5244       </div>
5245     </div>
5246     <div class="padding"></div>
5247
5248     <div class="entry">
5249       <div class="title">
5250         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
5251       </div>
5252       <div class="date">
5253          6th April 2011
5254       </div>
5255       <div class="body">
5256         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
5257 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
5258 A few days ago the project
5259 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
5260 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
5261 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
5262 into Gnash.</p>
5263
5264       </div>
5265       <div class="tags">
5266
5267
5268         Tags: <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>.
5269
5270
5271       </div>
5272     </div>
5273     <div class="padding"></div>
5274
5275     <div class="entry">
5276       <div class="title">
5277         <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>
5278       </div>
5279       <div class="date">
5280          3rd April 2011
5281       </div>
5282       <div class="body">
5283         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
5284 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
5285 update in English.</p>
5286
5287 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
5288 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
5289 of the British service
5290 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
5291 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
5292 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
5293 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
5294 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
5295 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
5296 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
5297 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
5298 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
5299 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
5300 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
5301 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
5302 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
5303
5304 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
5305 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
5306 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
5307 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
5308 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
5309 public infrastructure.</p>
5310
5311 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
5312 such service?</p>
5313
5314       </div>
5315       <div class="tags">
5316
5317
5318         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>.
5319
5320
5321       </div>
5322     </div>
5323     <div class="padding"></div>
5324
5325     <div class="entry">
5326       <div class="title">
5327         <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>
5328       </div>
5329       <div class="date">
5330         28th January 2011
5331       </div>
5332       <div class="body">
5333         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
5334 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
5335 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
5336 available on the Internet, and check our locally
5337 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
5338 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
5339 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
5340 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
5341 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
5342 out which security holes were present in our free software
5343 collection.</p>
5344
5345 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
5346 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
5347 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
5348 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
5349 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
5350 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
5351 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
5352 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
5353 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
5354 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
5355 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
5356 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
5357 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
5358 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
5359 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
5360 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
5361
5362 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
5363 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
5364 check out, one could look up
5365 <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
5366 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
5367 The most recent one is
5368 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
5369 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
5370 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
5371
5372 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
5373 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
5374 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
5375 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
5376 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
5377 security issues out.</p>
5378
5379 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
5380 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
5381 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
5382 RHEL is providing
5383 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
5384 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
5385 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
5386
5387 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
5388 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
5389 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
5390 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
5391 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
5392 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
5393 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
5394 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
5395 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
5396 established soon.</p>
5397
5398 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
5399 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
5400 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
5401 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
5402 for their packages.</p>
5403
5404       </div>
5405       <div class="tags">
5406
5407
5408         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>.
5409
5410
5411       </div>
5412     </div>
5413     <div class="padding"></div>
5414
5415     <div class="entry">
5416       <div class="title">
5417         <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>
5418       </div>
5419       <div class="date">
5420         23rd January 2011
5421       </div>
5422       <div class="body">
5423         <p>In the
5424 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
5425 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
5426 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
5427 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
5428 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
5429 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
5430 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
5431 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
5432 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
5433 one of my machines like this:</p>
5434
5435 <pre>
5436 loaded modules:
5437 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
5438 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
5439 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
5440 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
5441 10de:03ec pata_amd
5442 10de:03f6 sata_nv
5443 1022:1103 k8temp
5444 109e:036e bttv
5445 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
5446 11ab:4364 sky2
5447 </pre>
5448
5449 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
5450 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
5451
5452 <pre>
5453 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
5454     echo loaded pci modules:
5455     (
5456         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
5457         for address in * ; do
5458             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5459                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5460                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5461                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5462                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
5463                     echo "$id $module"
5464                 fi
5465             fi
5466         done
5467     )
5468     echo
5469 fi
5470 </pre>
5471
5472 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
5473 mappings:</p>
5474
5475 <pre>
5476 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
5477     echo loaded usb modules:
5478     (
5479         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
5480         for address in * ; do
5481             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5482                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5483                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5484                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5485                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
5486                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
5487                         echo "$id $module"
5488                     fi
5489                 fi
5490             fi
5491         done
5492     )
5493     echo
5494 fi
5495 </pre>
5496
5497 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
5498 well.</p>
5499
5500       </div>
5501       <div class="tags">
5502
5503
5504         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>.
5505
5506
5507       </div>
5508     </div>
5509     <div class="padding"></div>
5510
5511     <div class="entry">
5512       <div class="title">
5513         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html">The video format most supported in web browsers?</a>
5514       </div>
5515       <div class="date">
5516         16th January 2011
5517       </div>
5518       <div class="body">
5519         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
5520 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
5521 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
5522 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
5523 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
5524 the Wikipedia article on
5525 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
5526 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
5527 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
5528 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
5529 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
5530 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
5531 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
5532 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
5533 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
5534 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
5535 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
5536 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
5537
5538 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
5539 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
5540 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
5541 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
5542 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
5543 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
5544 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
5545 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
5546 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
5547 from last week</a>.</p>
5548
5549 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
5550 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
5551 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
5552 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
5553 was without royalties and license terms, check out
5554 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
5555 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
5556
5557 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
5558 available from
5559 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
5560 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
5561 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
5562
5563 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
5564 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
5565 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
5566 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
5567
5568       </div>
5569       <div class="tags">
5570
5571
5572         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
5573
5574
5575       </div>
5576     </div>
5577     <div class="padding"></div>
5578
5579     <div class="entry">
5580       <div class="title">
5581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html">Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt;</a>
5582       </div>
5583       <div class="date">
5584         12th January 2011
5585       </div>
5586       <div class="body">
5587         <p>Today I discovered
5588 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
5589 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
5590 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
5591 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
5592 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
5593 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
5594 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
5595 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
5596 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
5597 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
5598 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
5599 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
5600 on the Google announcement is available from
5601 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
5602 A good read. :)</p>
5603
5604 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
5605 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
5606 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
5607 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
5608 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
5609 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
5610 browsers support H.264, and others support
5611 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
5612 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
5613 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
5614 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
5615 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
5616 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
5617 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
5618 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
5619
5620 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
5621 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
5622 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
5623 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
5624 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
5625 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
5626 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
5627
5628 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
5629 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
5630 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
5631 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
5632 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
5633 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
5634 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
5635
5636 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
5637 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
5638 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
5639 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
5640 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
5641 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
5642 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
5643
5644 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
5645 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
5646 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
5647 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
5648 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
5649 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
5650 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
5651 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
5652 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
5653 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
5654 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
5655 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
5656 I guess time will tell.</p>
5657
5658 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
5659 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
5660 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
5661
5662       </div>
5663       <div class="tags">
5664
5665
5666         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
5667
5668
5669       </div>
5670     </div>
5671     <div class="padding"></div>
5672
5673     <div class="entry">
5674       <div class="title">
5675         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
5676       </div>
5677       <div class="date">
5678         30th December 2010
5679       </div>
5680       <div class="body">
5681         <p>After trying to
5682 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
5683 Ogg Theora</a> to
5684 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
5685 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
5686 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
5687 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
5688 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
5689 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
5690 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
5691
5692 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
5693 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
5694 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
5695 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
5696 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
5697 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
5698 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
5699
5700 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
5701 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
5702
5703       </div>
5704       <div class="tags">
5705
5706
5707         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
5708
5709
5710       </div>
5711     </div>
5712     <div class="padding"></div>
5713
5714     <div class="entry">
5715       <div class="title">
5716         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
5717       </div>
5718       <div class="date">
5719         27th December 2010
5720       </div>
5721       <div class="body">
5722         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
5723 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
5724 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
5725 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
5726 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
5727 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
5728 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
5729 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
5730
5731 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
5732 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
5733 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
5734 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
5735 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
5736 page</a>.</p>
5737
5738 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
5739 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
5740 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
5741 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
5742 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
5743 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
5744 specification on equal terms.</p>
5745
5746 <blockquote>
5747
5748 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
5749 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
5750 open standard:</p>
5751
5752 <ul>
5753
5754 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
5755 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
5756 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
5757 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
5758
5759 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
5760 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
5761 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
5762 nominal fee.</li>
5763
5764 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
5765 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
5766 free basis.</li>
5767
5768 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
5769
5770 </ul>
5771 </blockquote>
5772
5773 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
5774 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
5775 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
5776 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
5777 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
5778 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
5779 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
5780
5781 <blockquote>
5782
5783 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
5784
5785 <ol>
5786
5787 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
5788 tilgængelig.</li>
5789
5790 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
5791 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
5792
5793 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
5794 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
5795
5796 </ol>
5797
5798 </blockquote>
5799
5800 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
5801 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
5802
5803 <blockquote>
5804
5805 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
5806
5807 <ol>
5808
5809 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
5810 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
5811
5812 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
5813 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
5814 Standard themselves;</li>
5815
5816 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
5817 any party or in any business model;</li>
5818
5819 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
5820 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
5821 parties;</li>
5822
5823 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
5824 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
5825 parties.</li>
5826
5827 </ol>
5828
5829 </blockquote>
5830
5831 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
5832 its
5833 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
5834 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
5835
5836 <blockquote>
5837 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
5838
5839 <ul>
5840
5841 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
5842   democratic:
5843
5844          <ul>
5845
5846          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
5847             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
5848             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
5849             and managed.</li>
5850
5851          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
5852             method, can be changed through input from all
5853             participants.</li>
5854
5855          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
5856             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
5857
5858          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
5859             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
5860
5861          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
5862             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
5863             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
5864
5865          </ul>
5866
5867 </li>
5868
5869 </ul>
5870
5871 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
5872 <ul>
5873
5874 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
5875   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
5876   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
5877   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
5878   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
5879
5880 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
5881   a technical or economic barriers</li>
5882
5883 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
5884   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
5885   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
5886   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
5887   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
5888   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
5889   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
5890   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
5891   intended to function.</li>
5892
5893 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
5894   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
5895   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
5896
5897 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
5898   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
5899   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
5900   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
5901   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
5902   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
5903   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
5904   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
5905
5906       <ul>
5907
5908       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
5909         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
5910         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
5911
5912       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
5913         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
5914         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
5915         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
5916
5917       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
5918         licensor</li>
5919
5920       </ul>
5921 </li>
5922
5923 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
5924   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
5925   or restricted licensing terms</li>
5926
5927 </ul>
5928
5929 </blockquote>
5930
5931 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
5932 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
5933 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
5934 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
5935 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
5936 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
5937 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
5938 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
5939 Standards.</p>
5940
5941       </div>
5942       <div class="tags">
5943
5944
5945         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
5946
5947
5948       </div>
5949     </div>
5950     <div class="padding"></div>
5951
5952     <div class="entry">
5953       <div class="title">
5954         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
5955       </div>
5956       <div class="date">
5957         25th December 2010
5958       </div>
5959       <div class="body">
5960         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
5961 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
5962
5963 <blockquote>
5964
5965 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
5966 as follows:</p>
5967
5968 <ol>
5969
5970 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
5971 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
5972 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
5973
5974 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
5975 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
5976 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
5977 parties.</li>
5978
5979 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
5980 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
5981 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
5982
5983 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
5984 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
5985
5986 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
5987
5988 </ol>
5989
5990 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
5991 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
5992 products based on the standard.</p>
5993 </blockquote>
5994
5995 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
5996 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
5997 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
5998 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
5999 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
6000 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
6001 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
6002 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
6003
6004 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
6005
6006 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
6007 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
6008 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
6009 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
6010 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
6011 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
6012 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
6013 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
6014 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
6015 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
6016 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
6017 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
6018 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
6019 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
6020
6021 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
6022
6023 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
6024 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
6025 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
6026 documentation indicating this.</p>
6027
6028 <p>According to
6029 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
6030 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
6031 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
6032 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
6033 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
6034 report is correct.</p>
6035
6036 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
6037
6038 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
6039 container format</a> and both the
6040 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
6041 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
6042 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
6043
6044 <blockquote>
6045
6046 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
6047 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
6048 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
6049 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
6050 specification compliance.
6051
6052 </blockquote>
6053
6054 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
6055 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
6056 this is the term:<p>
6057
6058 <blockquote>
6059
6060 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
6061 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
6062 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
6063 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
6064 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
6065 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
6066 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
6067 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
6068 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
6069 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
6070 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
6071 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
6072
6073 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
6074 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
6075 </blockquote>
6076
6077 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
6078 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
6079 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
6080 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
6081 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
6082
6083 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
6084
6085 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
6086 Theora format.
6087 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
6088 and
6089 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
6090 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
6091 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
6092 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
6093 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
6094 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
6095 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
6096 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
6097
6098 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
6099
6100 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
6101
6102 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
6103
6104 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
6105 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
6106 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
6107 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
6108 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
6109 this.</p>
6110
6111 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
6112 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
6113
6114       </div>
6115       <div class="tags">
6116
6117
6118         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
6119
6120
6121       </div>
6122     </div>
6123     <div class="padding"></div>
6124
6125     <div class="entry">
6126       <div class="title">
6127         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a>
6128       </div>
6129       <div class="date">
6130         25th December 2010
6131       </div>
6132       <div class="body">
6133         <p>A few days ago
6134 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
6135 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
6136 2.0 of
6137 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
6138 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
6139 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
6140 Nothing very surprising there, given
6141 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
6142 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
6143 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
6144 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
6145 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
6146 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
6147 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
6148 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
6149 standard definition from its content.</p>
6150
6151 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
6152 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
6153 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
6154 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
6155 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
6156 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
6157 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
6158 background information about that story is available in
6159 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
6160 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
6161
6162 <blockquote>
6163 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
6164 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
6165 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
6166
6167 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
6168
6169 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
6170
6171 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
6172
6173 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
6174
6175 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
6176
6177 <p>
6178 <ul>
6179 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
6180 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
6181 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
6182 </ul>
6183 </p>
6184
6185 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
6186
6187 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
6188
6189 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
6190
6191 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
6192
6193 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
6194
6195
6196 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
6197 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
6198 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
6199 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
6200 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
6201 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
6202
6203 </p>
6204
6205 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
6206
6207 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
6208
6209 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
6210
6211 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
6212
6213 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
6214
6215 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
6216
6217 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
6218
6219 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
6220
6221 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
6222
6223 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
6224
6225 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
6226
6227 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
6228
6229 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
6230
6231 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
6232
6233 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
6234
6235 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
6236
6237 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
6238
6239 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
6240
6241 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
6242
6243 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
6244
6245 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
6246
6247 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
6248
6249 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
6250
6251 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
6252
6253 <p>On security:</p>
6254
6255 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
6256
6257 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
6258
6259 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
6260
6261 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
6262
6263 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
6264
6265 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
6266
6267 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
6268
6269 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
6270
6271 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
6272
6273 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
6274
6275 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
6276
6277 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
6278
6279 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
6280
6281 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
6282
6283 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
6284
6285 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
6286
6287 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
6288
6289 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
6290
6291 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
6292
6293 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
6294
6295 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
6296
6297 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
6298
6299 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
6300
6301 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
6302
6303 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
6304
6305 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
6306
6307 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
6308
6309 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
6310
6311 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
6312
6313 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
6314
6315 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
6316
6317 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
6318
6319 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
6320
6321 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
6322
6323 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
6324
6325 <p>Cordially,<br>
6326 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
6327 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
6328 </blockquote>
6329
6330       </div>
6331       <div class="tags">
6332
6333
6334         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
6335
6336
6337       </div>
6338     </div>
6339     <div class="padding"></div>
6340
6341     <div class="entry">
6342       <div class="title">
6343         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
6344       </div>
6345       <div class="date">
6346         25th December 2010
6347       </div>
6348       <div class="body">
6349         <p>Half a year ago I
6350 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
6351 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
6352 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
6353 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
6354
6355 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
6356 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
6357 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
6358 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
6359 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
6360 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
6361 got such a great test tool available.</p>
6362
6363       </div>
6364       <div class="tags">
6365
6366
6367         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
6368
6369
6370       </div>
6371     </div>
6372     <div class="padding"></div>
6373
6374     <div class="entry">
6375       <div class="title">
6376         <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>
6377       </div>
6378       <div class="date">
6379         22nd December 2010
6380       </div>
6381       <div class="body">
6382         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
6383 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
6384 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
6385 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
6386 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
6387 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
6388 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
6389 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
6390 university.</p>
6391
6392 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
6393 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
6394 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
6395 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
6396 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
6397 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
6398 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
6399 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
6400
6401 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
6402 I perform on a new model.</p>
6403
6404 <ul>
6405
6406 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
6407 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
6408 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
6409
6410 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
6411 installation, X.org is working.</li>
6412
6413 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
6414 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
6415 reported by the program.</li>
6416
6417 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
6418 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
6419 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
6420 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
6421 normally test this by playing
6422 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
6423 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
6424
6425 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
6426 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6427
6428 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
6429 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6430
6431 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
6432 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
6433
6434 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
6435 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
6436 few.</li>
6437
6438 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
6439 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
6440 notice this.</li>
6441
6442 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
6443 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
6444 resume.</li>
6445
6446 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
6447 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
6448 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
6449 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
6450 not.</li>
6451
6452 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
6453 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
6454 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
6455 existence.</li>
6456
6457 </ul>
6458
6459 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
6460 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
6461 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
6462 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
6463 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
6464 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
6465 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
6466 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
6467
6468       </div>
6469       <div class="tags">
6470
6471
6472         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>.
6473
6474
6475       </div>
6476     </div>
6477     <div class="padding"></div>
6478
6479     <div class="entry">
6480       <div class="title">
6481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
6482       </div>
6483       <div class="date">
6484         11th December 2010
6485       </div>
6486       <div class="body">
6487         <p>As I continue to explore
6488 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
6489 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
6490 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
6491
6492 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
6493 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
6494 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
6495 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
6496 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
6497 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
6498 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
6499 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
6500 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
6501 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
6502 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
6503 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
6504 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
6505 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
6506 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
6507 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
6508 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
6509 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
6510 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
6511 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
6512
6513 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
6514 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
6515 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
6516 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
6517 If the Skolelinux foundation
6518 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
6519 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
6520 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
6521 Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
6522 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
6523 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
6524 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
6525 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
6526
6527 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
6528 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
6529 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
6530 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
6531 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
6532 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
6533 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
6534 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
6535 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
6536 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
6537 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
6538 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
6539 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
6540 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
6541 currencies.</p>
6542
6543 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
6544 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
6545 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
6546 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
6547 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
6548 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
6549 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
6550 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
6551 BitCoins.  Check out
6552 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
6553 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
6554 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
6555 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
6556 yet.</p>
6557
6558 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
6559 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
6560 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
6561 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
6562 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
6563
6564       </div>
6565       <div class="tags">
6566
6567
6568         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>.
6569
6570
6571       </div>
6572     </div>
6573     <div class="padding"></div>
6574
6575     <div class="entry">
6576       <div class="title">
6577         <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>
6578       </div>
6579       <div class="date">
6580         10th December 2010
6581       </div>
6582       <div class="body">
6583         <p>With this weeks lawless
6584 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
6585 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
6586 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
6587 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
6588 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
6589 A blog post from
6590 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
6591 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
6592 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
6593 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
6594 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
6595 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
6596 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
6597
6598 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
6599 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
6600 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
6601 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
6602 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
6603 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
6604 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
6605 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
6606 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
6607 Debian</a> soon.</p>
6608
6609 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
6610 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
6611 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
6612 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
6613 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
6614 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
6615 you can even get
6616 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
6617 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
6618 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
6619 on the current exchange rates.</p>
6620
6621 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
6622 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
6623 donations to the address
6624 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
6625
6626       </div>
6627       <div class="tags">
6628
6629
6630         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>.
6631
6632
6633       </div>
6634     </div>
6635     <div class="padding"></div>
6636
6637     <div class="entry">
6638       <div class="title">
6639         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
6640       </div>
6641       <div class="date">
6642          9th December 2010
6643       </div>
6644       <div class="body">
6645         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
6646 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
6647 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
6648 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
6649 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
6650 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
6651 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
6652 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
6653 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
6654 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
6655 operational.</p>
6656
6657 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
6658 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
6659 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
6660 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
6661 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
6662 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
6663 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
6664
6665       </div>
6666       <div class="tags">
6667
6668
6669         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
6670
6671
6672       </div>
6673     </div>
6674     <div class="padding"></div>
6675
6676     <div class="entry">
6677       <div class="title">
6678         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html">Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK</a>
6679       </div>
6680       <div class="date">
6681         29th November 2010
6682       </div>
6683       <div class="body">
6684         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
6685 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
6686 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
6687 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
6688 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
6689 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
6690
6691 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
6692 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
6693 will hold its
6694 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
6695 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
6696 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
6697 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
6698 vote this year.</p>
6699
6700       </div>
6701       <div class="tags">
6702
6703
6704         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6705
6706
6707       </div>
6708     </div>
6709     <div class="padding"></div>
6710
6711     <div class="entry">
6712       <div class="title">
6713         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
6714       </div>
6715       <div class="date">
6716         27th November 2010
6717       </div>
6718       <div class="body">
6719         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
6720 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
6721 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
6722 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
6723 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
6724 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
6725 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
6726 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
6727
6728 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
6729 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6730 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
6731 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
6732 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
6733 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
6734 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
6735 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
6736 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
6737 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
6738 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
6739
6740 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
6741 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
6742 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
6743 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
6744 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
6745 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
6746 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
6747 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
6748 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
6749 what is going on.</p>
6750
6751       </div>
6752       <div class="tags">
6753
6754
6755         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>.
6756
6757
6758       </div>
6759     </div>
6760     <div class="padding"></div>
6761
6762     <div class="entry">
6763       <div class="title">
6764         <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>
6765       </div>
6766       <div class="date">
6767         22nd November 2010
6768       </div>
6769       <div class="body">
6770         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
6771 upgrade testing of the
6772 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6773 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
6774 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
6775 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
6776
6777 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6778
6779 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6780
6781 <blockquote><p>
6782   apache2.2-bin
6783   aptdaemon
6784   baobab
6785   binfmt-support
6786   browser-plugin-gnash
6787   cheese-common
6788   cli-common
6789   cups-pk-helper
6790   dmz-cursor-theme
6791   empathy
6792   empathy-common
6793   freedesktop-sound-theme
6794   freeglut3
6795   gconf-defaults-service
6796   gdm-themes
6797   gedit-plugins
6798   geoclue
6799   geoclue-hostip
6800   geoclue-localnet
6801   geoclue-manual
6802   geoclue-yahoo
6803   gnash
6804   gnash-common
6805   gnome
6806   gnome-backgrounds
6807   gnome-cards-data
6808   gnome-codec-install
6809   gnome-core
6810   gnome-desktop-environment
6811   gnome-disk-utility
6812   gnome-screenshot
6813   gnome-search-tool
6814   gnome-session-canberra
6815   gnome-system-log
6816   gnome-themes-extras
6817   gnome-themes-more
6818   gnome-user-share
6819   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6820   gstreamer0.10-tools
6821   gtk2-engines
6822   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6823   gtk2-engines-smooth
6824   hamster-applet
6825   libapache2-mod-dnssd
6826   libapr1
6827   libaprutil1
6828   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
6829   libaprutil1-ldap
6830   libart2.0-cil
6831   libboost-date-time1.42.0
6832   libboost-python1.42.0
6833   libboost-thread1.42.0
6834   libchamplain-0.4-0
6835   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
6836   libcheese-gtk18
6837   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6838   libcryptui0
6839   libdiscid0
6840   libelf1
6841   libepc-1.0-2
6842   libepc-common
6843   libepc-ui-1.0-2
6844   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6845   libfreerdp0
6846   libgconf2.0-cil
6847   libgdata-common
6848   libgdata7
6849   libgdu-gtk0
6850   libgee2
6851   libgeoclue0
6852   libgexiv2-0
6853   libgif4
6854   libglade2.0-cil
6855   libglib2.0-cil
6856   libgmime2.4-cil
6857   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6858   libgnome2.24-cil
6859   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
6860   libgpod-common
6861   libgpod4
6862   libgtk2.0-cil
6863   libgtkglext1
6864   libgtksourceview2.0-common
6865   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6866   libmono-addins0.2-cil
6867   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
6868   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6869   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
6870   libmono-posix2.0-cil
6871   libmono-security2.0-cil
6872   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6873   libmono-system2.0-cil
6874   libmtp8
6875   libmusicbrainz3-6
6876   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
6877   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
6878   libopal3.6.8
6879   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
6880   libpt2.6.7
6881   libpython2.6
6882   librpm1
6883   librpmio1
6884   libsdl1.2debian
6885   libsrtp0
6886   libssh-4
6887   libtelepathy-farsight0
6888   libtelepathy-glib0
6889   libtidy-0.99-0
6890   media-player-info
6891   mesa-utils
6892   mono-2.0-gac
6893   mono-gac
6894   mono-runtime
6895   nautilus-sendto
6896   nautilus-sendto-empathy
6897   p7zip-full
6898   pkg-config
6899   python-aptdaemon
6900   python-aptdaemon-gtk
6901   python-axiom
6902   python-beautifulsoup
6903   python-bugbuddy
6904   python-clientform
6905   python-coherence
6906   python-configobj
6907   python-crypto
6908   python-cupshelpers
6909   python-elementtree
6910   python-epsilon
6911   python-evolution
6912   python-feedparser
6913   python-gdata
6914   python-gdbm
6915   python-gst0.10
6916   python-gtkglext1
6917   python-gtksourceview2
6918   python-httplib2
6919   python-louie
6920   python-mako
6921   python-markupsafe
6922   python-mechanize
6923   python-nevow
6924   python-notify
6925   python-opengl
6926   python-openssl
6927   python-pam
6928   python-pkg-resources
6929   python-pyasn1
6930   python-pysqlite2
6931   python-rdflib
6932   python-serial
6933   python-tagpy
6934   python-twisted-bin
6935   python-twisted-conch
6936   python-twisted-core
6937   python-twisted-web
6938   python-utidylib
6939   python-webkit
6940   python-xdg
6941   python-zope.interface
6942   remmina
6943   remmina-plugin-data
6944   remmina-plugin-rdp
6945   remmina-plugin-vnc
6946   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6947   rhythmbox-plugins
6948   rpm-common
6949   rpm2cpio
6950   seahorse-plugins
6951   shotwell
6952   software-center
6953   system-config-printer-udev
6954   telepathy-gabble
6955   telepathy-mission-control-5
6956   telepathy-salut
6957   tomboy
6958   totem
6959   totem-coherence
6960   totem-mozilla
6961   totem-plugins
6962   transmission-common
6963   xdg-user-dirs
6964   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6965   xserver-xephyr
6966 </p></blockquote>
6967
6968 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6969
6970 <blockquote><p>
6971   cheese
6972   ekiga
6973   eog
6974   epiphany-extensions
6975   evolution-exchange
6976   fast-user-switch-applet
6977   file-roller
6978   gcalctool
6979   gconf-editor
6980   gdm
6981   gedit
6982   gedit-common
6983   gnome-games
6984   gnome-games-data
6985   gnome-nettool
6986   gnome-system-tools
6987   gnome-themes
6988   gnuchess
6989   gucharmap
6990   guile-1.8-libs
6991   libavahi-ui0
6992   libdmx1
6993   libgalago3
6994   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6995   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6996   liblircclient0
6997   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6998   libspeexdsp1
6999   libsvga1
7000   rhythmbox
7001   seahorse
7002   sound-juicer
7003   system-config-printer
7004   totem-common
7005   transmission-gtk
7006   vinagre
7007   vino
7008 </p></blockquote>
7009
7010 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7011
7012 <blockquote><p>
7013   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7014 </p></blockquote>
7015
7016 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7017
7018 <blockquote><p>
7019 [nothing]
7020 </p></blockquote>
7021
7022 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7023
7024 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7025
7026 <blockquote><p>
7027   ksmserver
7028 </p></blockquote>
7029
7030 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7031
7032 <blockquote><p>
7033   kwin
7034   network-manager-kde
7035 </p></blockquote>
7036
7037 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7038
7039 <blockquote><p>
7040   arts
7041   dolphin
7042   freespacenotifier
7043   google-gadgets-gst
7044   google-gadgets-xul
7045   kappfinder
7046   kcalc
7047   kcharselect
7048   kde-core
7049   kde-plasma-desktop
7050   kde-standard
7051   kde-window-manager
7052   kdeartwork
7053   kdeartwork-emoticons
7054   kdeartwork-style
7055   kdeartwork-theme-icon
7056   kdebase
7057   kdebase-apps
7058   kdebase-workspace
7059   kdebase-workspace-bin
7060   kdebase-workspace-data
7061   kdeeject
7062   kdelibs
7063   kdeplasma-addons
7064   kdeutils
7065   kdewallpapers
7066   kdf
7067   kfloppy
7068   kgpg
7069   khelpcenter4
7070   kinfocenter
7071   konq-plugins-l10n
7072   konqueror-nsplugins
7073   kscreensaver
7074   kscreensaver-xsavers
7075   ktimer
7076   kwrite
7077   libgle3
7078   libkde4-ruby1.8
7079   libkonq5
7080   libkonq5-templates
7081   libnetpbm10
7082   libplasma-ruby
7083   libplasma-ruby1.8
7084   libqt4-ruby1.8
7085   marble-data
7086   marble-plugins
7087   netpbm
7088   nuvola-icon-theme
7089   plasma-dataengines-workspace
7090   plasma-desktop
7091   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
7092   plasma-runners-addons
7093   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
7094   plasma-scriptengine-python
7095   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
7096   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
7097   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
7098   plasma-scriptengines
7099   plasma-wallpapers-addons
7100   plasma-widget-folderview
7101   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7102   ruby
7103   sweeper
7104   update-notifier-kde
7105   xscreensaver-data-extra
7106   xscreensaver-gl
7107   xscreensaver-gl-extra
7108   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7109 </p></blockquote>
7110
7111 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7112
7113 <blockquote><p>
7114   ark
7115   google-gadgets-common
7116   google-gadgets-qt
7117   htdig
7118   kate
7119   kdebase-bin
7120   kdebase-data
7121   kdepasswd
7122   kfind
7123   klipper
7124   konq-plugins
7125   konqueror
7126   ksysguard
7127   ksysguardd
7128   libarchive1
7129   libcln6
7130   libeet1
7131   libeina-svn-06
7132   libggadget-1.0-0b
7133   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
7134   libgps19
7135   libkdecorations4
7136   libkephal4
7137   libkonq4
7138   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
7139   libkscreensaver5
7140   libksgrd4
7141   libksignalplotter4
7142   libkunitconversion4
7143   libkwineffects1a
7144   libmarblewidget4
7145   libntrack-qt4-1
7146   libntrack0
7147   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
7148   libplasmaclock4a
7149   libplasmagenericshell4
7150   libprocesscore4a
7151   libprocessui4a
7152   libqalculate5
7153   libqedje0a
7154   libqtruby4shared2
7155   libqzion0a
7156   libruby1.8
7157   libscim8c2a
7158   libsmokekdecore4-3
7159   libsmokekdeui4-3
7160   libsmokekfile3
7161   libsmokekhtml3
7162   libsmokekio3
7163   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
7164   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
7165   libsmokekparts3
7166   libsmokektexteditor3
7167   libsmokekutils3
7168   libsmokenepomuk3
7169   libsmokephonon3
7170   libsmokeplasma3
7171   libsmokeqtcore4-3
7172   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
7173   libsmokeqtgui4-3
7174   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
7175   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
7176   libsmokeqtscript4-3
7177   libsmokeqtsql4-3
7178   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
7179   libsmokeqttest4-3
7180   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
7181   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
7182   libsmokeqtxml4-3
7183   libsmokesolid3
7184   libsmokesoprano3
7185   libtaskmanager4a
7186   libtidy-0.99-0
7187   libweather-ion4a
7188   libxklavier16
7189   libxxf86misc1
7190   okteta
7191   oxygencursors
7192   plasma-dataengines-addons
7193   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
7194   plasma-widget-lancelot
7195   plasma-widgets-addons
7196   plasma-widgets-workspace
7197   polkit-kde-1
7198   ruby1.8
7199   systemsettings
7200   update-notifier-common
7201 </p></blockquote>
7202
7203 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
7204 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
7205 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
7206 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
7207
7208       </div>
7209       <div class="tags">
7210
7211
7212         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>.
7213
7214
7215       </div>
7216     </div>
7217     <div class="padding"></div>
7218
7219     <div class="entry">
7220       <div class="title">
7221         <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>
7222       </div>
7223       <div class="date">
7224         22nd November 2010
7225       </div>
7226       <div class="body">
7227         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
7228 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
7229 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
7230 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
7231 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
7232 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
7233 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
7234 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
7235 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
7236
7237 <p>I found
7238 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
7239 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
7240 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
7241 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
7242 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
7243 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
7244
7245 <pre>
7246 #!/bin/sh
7247
7248 # Based on
7249 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
7250
7251 set -e
7252 set -x
7253
7254 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
7255     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
7256     exit 1
7257 else
7258     host="$1"
7259 fi
7260
7261 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
7262     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
7263     exit 1
7264 fi
7265
7266 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
7267 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7268 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7269 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
7270
7271 img=$host.img
7272 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
7273 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
7274
7275 parted $img mklabel msdos
7276 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
7277 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
7278 parted $img set 1 boot on
7279
7280 modprobe dm-mod
7281 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
7282 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
7283
7284 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
7285 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
7286 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
7287
7288 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
7289 losetup -d /dev/loop0
7290 </pre>
7291
7292 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
7293 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
7294
7295 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
7296 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
7297 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
7298 seem to work just fine.</p>
7299
7300       </div>
7301       <div class="tags">
7302
7303
7304         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>.
7305
7306
7307       </div>
7308     </div>
7309     <div class="padding"></div>
7310
7311     <div class="entry">
7312       <div class="title">
7313         <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>
7314       </div>
7315       <div class="date">
7316         20th November 2010
7317       </div>
7318       <div class="body">
7319         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
7320 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7321 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
7322 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
7323
7324 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
7325 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
7326 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
7327
7328 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
7329
7330 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7331
7332 <blockquote><p>
7333   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
7334   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
7335   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
7336   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
7337   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
7338   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
7339   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
7340   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
7341   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
7342   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
7343   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7344   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7345   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
7346   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
7347   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
7348   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
7349   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7350   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
7351   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7352   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
7353   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
7354   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7355   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
7356   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
7357   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
7358   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7359   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7360   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
7361   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7362   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
7363   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
7364   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7365   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
7366   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
7367   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
7368   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
7369   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
7370   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
7371   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
7372   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
7373   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
7374   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
7375   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
7376   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
7377   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
7378   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
7379   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
7380   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
7381   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
7382   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
7383   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
7384   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
7385   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7386   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
7387   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
7388   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
7389   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
7390   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
7391   zip
7392 </p></blockquote>
7393
7394 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
7395
7396 <blockquote><p>
7397   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
7398   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
7399   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
7400   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
7401   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
7402   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
7403   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
7404   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
7405   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
7406   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
7407   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
7408   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7409   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7410   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7411   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7412   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
7413   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7414   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
7415   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
7416   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
7417   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
7418   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
7419   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7420   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
7421   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
7422   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
7423   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
7424   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
7425   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
7426 </p></blockquote>
7427
7428 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7429
7430 <blockquote><p>
7431   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7432 </p></blockquote>
7433
7434 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7435
7436 <blockquote><p>
7437 [nothing]
7438 </p></blockquote>
7439
7440 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7441
7442 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7443
7444 <blockquote><p>
7445   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
7446   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7447   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
7448   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
7449   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
7450   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
7451   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7452   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
7453   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
7454   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7455   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
7456   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
7457   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
7458   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
7459   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
7460   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
7461   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
7462   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
7463   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
7464   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
7465   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
7466   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
7467   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
7468   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
7469   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
7470   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
7471   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
7472   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
7473   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
7474   ttf-sazanami-gothic
7475 </p></blockquote>
7476
7477 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7478
7479 <blockquote><p>
7480   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
7481   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
7482   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
7483   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
7484   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
7485   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
7486   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
7487   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
7488   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
7489   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
7490   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
7491   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
7492   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
7493   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
7494   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7495   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7496   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
7497   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
7498   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7499   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
7500   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7501   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
7502   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7503   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7504   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
7505   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
7506   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
7507   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
7508   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
7509   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
7510   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
7511   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
7512   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
7513 </p></blockquote>
7514
7515 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7516
7517 <blockquote><p>
7518   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
7519   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
7520   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
7521   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
7522   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7523   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
7524   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7525 </p></blockquote>
7526
7527 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7528
7529 <blockquote><p>
7530   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
7531 </p></blockquote>
7532
7533       </div>
7534       <div class="tags">
7535
7536
7537         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>.
7538
7539
7540       </div>
7541     </div>
7542     <div class="padding"></div>
7543
7544     <div class="entry">
7545       <div class="title">
7546         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
7547       </div>
7548       <div class="date">
7549         20th November 2010
7550       </div>
7551       <div class="body">
7552         <p>Answering
7553 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
7554 call from the Gnash project</a> for
7555 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
7556 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
7557 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
7558 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
7559 releases out more often.</p>
7560
7561 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
7562 I have considered setting up a <a
7563 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
7564 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
7565 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
7566 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
7567 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
7568 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
7569 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
7570 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
7571 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
7572 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
7573 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
7574 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
7575
7576       </div>
7577       <div class="tags">
7578
7579
7580         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>.
7581
7582
7583       </div>
7584     </div>
7585     <div class="padding"></div>
7586
7587     <div class="entry">
7588       <div class="title">
7589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
7590       </div>
7591       <div class="date">
7592          9th November 2010
7593       </div>
7594       <div class="body">
7595         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
7596
7597 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
7598 3D linked in from
7599 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
7600 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
7601
7602       </div>
7603       <div class="tags">
7604
7605
7606         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>.
7607
7608
7609       </div>
7610     </div>
7611     <div class="padding"></div>
7612
7613     <div class="entry">
7614       <div class="title">
7615         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html">Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD</a>
7616       </div>
7617       <div class="date">
7618          7th November 2010
7619       </div>
7620       <div class="body">
7621         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
7622 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
7623 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
7624 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
7625 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
7626 working using this DVD.</p>
7627
7628 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
7629 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
7630 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
7631 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
7632 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
7633 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
7634 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
7635
7636 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
7637 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
7638 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
7639 Debian archive.</p>
7640
7641 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
7642 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
7643 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
7644 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
7645 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
7646 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
7647 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
7648 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
7649 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
7650 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
7651 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
7652 free X driver should work.</p>
7653
7654 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
7655 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
7656 DVD more useful again.</p>
7657
7658       </div>
7659       <div class="tags">
7660
7661
7662         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7663
7664
7665       </div>
7666     </div>
7667     <div class="padding"></div>
7668
7669     <div class="entry">
7670       <div class="title">
7671         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
7672       </div>
7673       <div class="date">
7674         24th October 2010
7675       </div>
7676       <div class="body">
7677         <p>Some updates.</p>
7678
7679 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
7680 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
7681 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
7682 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
7683 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
7684 :)</p>
7685
7686 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
7687 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
7688 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
7689 It is called
7690 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
7691 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
7692 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
7693 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
7694 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
7695 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
7696
7697 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
7698 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
7699 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
7700 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
7701 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
7702 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
7703 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
7704 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
7705 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
7706 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
7707
7708       </div>
7709       <div class="tags">
7710
7711
7712         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>.
7713
7714
7715       </div>
7716     </div>
7717     <div class="padding"></div>
7718
7719     <div class="entry">
7720       <div class="title">
7721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html">Pledge for funding to the Gnash project to get AVM2 support</a>
7722       </div>
7723       <div class="date">
7724         19th October 2010
7725       </div>
7726       <div class="body">
7727         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
7728 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
7729 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
7730 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
7731 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
7732 AVM2 flash files.</p>
7733
7734 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
7735 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
7736 following text:</P>
7737
7738 <p><blockquote>
7739
7740   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
7741   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
7742
7743   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
7744
7745   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
7746
7747   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
7748   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
7749   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
7750   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
7751   days. The project web page is available from
7752   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
7753   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
7754   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
7755
7756   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
7757   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
7758   to get this to happen.</p>
7759
7760   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
7761   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
7762
7763 </blockquote></p>
7764
7765 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
7766 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
7767 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
7768 :)</p>
7769
7770       </div>
7771       <div class="tags">
7772
7773
7774         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</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>.
7775
7776
7777       </div>
7778     </div>
7779     <div class="padding"></div>
7780
7781     <div class="entry">
7782       <div class="title">
7783         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html">First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot</a>
7784       </div>
7785       <div class="date">
7786          9th October 2010
7787       </div>
7788       <div class="body">
7789         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
7790 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
7791 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
7792 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
7793 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
7794 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
7795 robots.</p>
7796
7797 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
7798 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
7799 a few less important features too.</p>
7800
7801 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
7802 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
7803 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
7804 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
7805
7806 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
7807 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
7808 source or binary package:</p>
7809
7810 <p><ul>
7811 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz</a></li>
7812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc</a></li>
7813 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb</a></li>
7814 </ul></p>
7815
7816 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
7817 please let me know.</p>
7818
7819       </div>
7820       <div class="tags">
7821
7822
7823         Tags: <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/robot">robot</a>.
7824
7825
7826       </div>
7827     </div>
7828     <div class="padding"></div>
7829
7830     <div class="entry">
7831       <div class="title">
7832         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
7833       </div>
7834       <div class="date">
7835          3rd October 2010
7836       </div>
7837       <div class="body">
7838         <p><ul>
7839
7840 <li><a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/09/there-is-no-plan-b-why-the-ipv4-to-ipv6-transition-will-be-ugly.ars">There
7841 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
7842
7843 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
7844 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
7845 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
7846
7847 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
7848 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
7849 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
7850 simple setup.
7851
7852 </ul></p>
7853
7854       </div>
7855       <div class="tags">
7856
7857
7858         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7859
7860
7861       </div>
7862     </div>
7863     <div class="padding"></div>
7864
7865     <div class="entry">
7866       <div class="title">
7867         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera</a>
7868       </div>
7869       <div class="date">
7870          9th September 2010
7871       </div>
7872       <div class="body">
7873         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
7874 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
7875 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
7876 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
7877 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
7878 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
7879 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
7880 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
7881 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
7882
7883 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
7884 written:</p>
7885
7886 <blockquote>
7887 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
7888 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
7889 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
7890 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
7891 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
7892
7893 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
7894 standard.</p>
7895 </blockquote>
7896
7897 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
7898 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
7899 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
7900 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
7901
7902 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
7903 read
7904 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
7905 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
7906 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
7907 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
7908 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
7909 the issue.  The solution is to support the
7910 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
7911 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
7912 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
7913
7914       </div>
7915       <div class="tags">
7916
7917
7918         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</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>.
7919
7920
7921       </div>
7922     </div>
7923     <div class="padding"></div>
7924
7925     <div class="entry">
7926       <div class="title">
7927         <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>
7928       </div>
7929       <div class="date">
7930          4th September 2010
7931       </div>
7932       <div class="body">
7933         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
7934 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
7935 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
7936 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
7937 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
7938 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
7939 installed.</p>
7940
7941 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
7942 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
7943 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
7944 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
7945 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7946 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
7947 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
7948 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
7949 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
7950
7951 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
7952 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
7953 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
7954 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
7955 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
7956 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
7957 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
7958 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
7959 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
7960 pages they want to visit.</p>
7961
7962 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
7963 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
7964 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
7965 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
7966 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
7967 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
7968 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
7969 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
7970 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
7971 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
7972 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
7973
7974       </div>
7975       <div class="tags">
7976
7977
7978         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>.
7979
7980
7981       </div>
7982     </div>
7983     <div class="padding"></div>
7984
7985     <div class="entry">
7986       <div class="title">
7987         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html">My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</a>
7988       </div>
7989       <div class="date">
7990          1st September 2010
7991       </div>
7992       <div class="body">
7993         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
7994 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
7995 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
7996 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
7997 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
7998 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
7999 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
8000 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
8001 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
8002 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
8003 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
8004 drive around.</p>
8005
8006 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
8007 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
8008
8009 <p><pre>
8010 use Spykee;
8011 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
8012 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
8013 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
8014 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
8015 $spykee->left();
8016 sleep 2;
8017 $spykee->right();
8018 sleep 2;
8019 $spykee->forward();
8020 sleep 2;
8021 $spykee->back();
8022 sleep 2;
8023 $spykee->stop();
8024 </pre></p>
8025
8026 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
8027 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
8028 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
8029 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
8030 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
8031 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
8032 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
8033 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
8034 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
8035 going. :).</p>
8036
8037 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
8038 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
8039 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
8040 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
8041
8042       </div>
8043       <div class="tags">
8044
8045
8046         Tags: <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/robot">robot</a>.
8047
8048
8049       </div>
8050     </div>
8051     <div class="padding"></div>
8052
8053     <div class="entry">
8054       <div class="title">
8055         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
8056       </div>
8057       <div class="date">
8058         30th August 2010
8059       </div>
8060       <div class="body">
8061         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
8062 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
8063 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
8064 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
8065 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
8066 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
8067 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
8068
8069 <pre>
8070 % ln foo bar
8071 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
8072 %
8073 </pre>
8074
8075 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
8076 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
8077 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
8078 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
8079 nevertheless. :)</p>
8080
8081 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
8082 git from
8083 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
8084
8085       </div>
8086       <div class="tags">
8087
8088
8089         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8090
8091
8092       </div>
8093     </div>
8094     <div class="padding"></div>
8095
8096     <div class="entry">
8097       <div class="title">
8098         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
8099       </div>
8100       <div class="date">
8101         26th August 2010
8102       </div>
8103       <div class="body">
8104         <p>My file system sematics program
8105 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
8106 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
8107 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
8108 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
8109 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
8110 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
8111 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
8112 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
8113 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
8114 script:</p>
8115
8116 <pre>
8117 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
8118   mode_t retval = 0;
8119   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
8120   if (-1 != fd) {
8121     unlink(name);
8122     struct stat statbuf;
8123     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
8124       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
8125     }
8126     close(fd);
8127   }
8128   return retval;
8129 }
8130
8131 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
8132 int test_umask(void) {
8133   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
8134
8135   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
8136   mode_t newmode;
8137   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
8138     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
8139            newmode);
8140   }
8141   umask(007);
8142   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
8143     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
8144            newmode);
8145   }
8146
8147   umask (orig_umask);
8148   return 0;
8149 }
8150
8151 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
8152   [...]
8153   test_umask();
8154   return 0;
8155 }
8156 </pre>
8157
8158 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
8159
8160 <pre>
8161 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8162 info: testing symlink creation
8163 info: testing subdirectory creation
8164 info: testing fcntl locking
8165   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8166   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8167   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8168   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8169   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8170   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8171 info: testing umask effect on file creation
8172 </pre>
8173
8174 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
8175 result:</p>
8176
8177 <pre>
8178 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8179 info: testing symlink creation
8180 info: testing subdirectory creation
8181 info: testing fcntl locking
8182   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8183   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8184   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8185   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8186   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8187   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8188 info: testing umask effect on file creation
8189   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
8190   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
8191 </pre>
8192
8193 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
8194 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
8195 directory.</p>
8196
8197 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
8198 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
8199
8200 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
8201 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
8202 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
8203
8204       </div>
8205       <div class="tags">
8206
8207
8208         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8209
8210
8211       </div>
8212     </div>
8213     <div class="padding"></div>
8214
8215     <div class="entry">
8216       <div class="title">
8217         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
8218       </div>
8219       <div class="date">
8220         15th August 2010
8221       </div>
8222       <div class="body">
8223         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
8224 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
8225 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
8226 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
8227 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
8228 long time.</p>
8229
8230       </div>
8231       <div class="tags">
8232
8233
8234         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</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>.
8235
8236
8237       </div>
8238     </div>
8239     <div class="padding"></div>
8240
8241     <div class="entry">
8242       <div class="title">
8243         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
8244       </div>
8245       <div class="date">
8246          9th August 2010
8247       </div>
8248       <div class="body">
8249         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
8250 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
8251 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
8252 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
8253 generated configuration.</p>
8254
8255 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
8256 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
8257 without any manual configuration.</p>
8258
8259 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
8260 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
8261 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
8262 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
8263 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
8264 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
8265 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
8266 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
8267 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
8268 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
8269 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
8270 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
8271 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
8272 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
8273 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
8274 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
8275 use.</p>
8276
8277 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
8278 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
8279 working properly out of the box:</p>
8280
8281 <ul>
8282 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
8283 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
8284 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
8285 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
8286 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
8287 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
8288 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
8289 </ul>
8290
8291 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
8292
8293 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
8294 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
8295 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
8296 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
8297 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
8298
8299 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
8300 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
8301 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
8302 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
8303 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
8304 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
8305 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
8306 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
8307
8308 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
8309 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
8310 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
8311 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
8312 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
8313 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
8314 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
8315 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
8316 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
8317 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
8318 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
8319 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
8320 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
8321 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
8322 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
8323 current DNS domain is used.</p>
8324
8325 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
8326 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
8327 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
8328 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
8329 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
8330 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
8331 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
8332 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
8333 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
8334 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
8335 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
8336 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
8337 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
8338
8339 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
8340 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
8341 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
8342 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
8343 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
8344 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
8345 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
8346 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
8347 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
8348 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
8349 do for now. :)</p>
8350
8351 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
8352 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
8353 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
8354 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
8355 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
8356 yet.</p>
8357
8358 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
8359 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8360
8361 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
8362 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
8363 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
8364 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
8365
8366       </div>
8367       <div class="tags">
8368
8369
8370         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8371
8372
8373       </div>
8374     </div>
8375     <div class="padding"></div>
8376
8377     <div class="entry">
8378       <div class="title">
8379         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...</a>
8380       </div>
8381       <div class="date">
8382          8th August 2010
8383       </div>
8384       <div class="body">
8385         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
8386 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
8387 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
8388 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
8389 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
8390 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
8391 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
8392
8393 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
8394 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
8395 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
8396 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
8397 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
8398 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
8399 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
8400
8401 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
8402 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
8403 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
8404 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
8405 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
8406
8407 <pre>
8408 /*
8409  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
8410  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
8411  * directory.
8412  * License: GPL v2 or later
8413  *
8414  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
8415  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
8416 */
8417
8418 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
8419 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
8420 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
8421
8422 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
8423
8424 #include &lt;errno.h>
8425 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
8426 #include &lt;stdio.h>
8427 #include &lt;string.h>
8428 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
8429 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
8430 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
8431 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
8432 #include &lt;unistd.h>
8433
8434 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
8435 /*
8436  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
8437  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
8438  * below.
8439  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
8440  */
8441 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
8442 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
8443   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
8444 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
8445   char *zErrMsg;
8446   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
8447   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
8448   unlink(name);
8449   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
8450   if( rc ){
8451     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
8452     sqlite3_close(db);
8453     return -1;
8454   }
8455
8456   /* create tables */
8457   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
8458   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
8459     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
8460     sqlite3_close(db);
8461     return -1;
8462   }
8463   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
8464   sqlite3_close(db);
8465   return 0;
8466 }
8467 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
8468
8469 /*
8470  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
8471  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
8472  * done in the sqlite3 library.
8473  * See also
8474  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
8475  * POSIX specification
8476  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
8477  */
8478 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
8479   struct flock fl;
8480   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
8481   unlink(name);
8482   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
8483   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
8484
8485   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
8486   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
8487   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
8488   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8489   fl.l_len    = 1;
8490   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
8491   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8492
8493   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
8494   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
8495   fl.l_len    = 510;
8496   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
8497   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8498
8499   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
8500   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8501   fl.l_len    = 1;
8502   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
8503   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8504
8505   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
8506   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8507   fl.l_len    = 1;
8508   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
8509   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8510
8511   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
8512   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
8513   fl.l_len    = 510;
8514   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8515
8516   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
8517   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8518   fl.l_len    = 2;
8519   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
8520   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
8521
8522   close(fd);
8523   return 0;
8524 }
8525
8526 /*
8527  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
8528  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
8529  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
8530  * slowing down file operations.
8531  */
8532 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
8533 #define LEVELS 5
8534   char *path = strdup("test");
8535   char *dirs[LEVELS];
8536   int level;
8537   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
8538   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
8539     char *newpath = NULL;
8540     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
8541       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
8542              path, strerror(errno));
8543       break;
8544     }
8545     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
8546     free(path);
8547     path = newpath;
8548   }
8549   return 0;
8550 }
8551
8552 /*
8553  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
8554  * KDE.
8555  */
8556 int test_symlinks(void) {
8557   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
8558   unlink("symlink");
8559   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
8560     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
8561   return 0;
8562 }
8563
8564 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
8565   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
8566   test_symlinks();
8567   test_subdirectory_creation();
8568 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
8569   test_sqlite_open();
8570 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
8571   test_gcompris_locking();
8572   return 0;
8573 }
8574 </pre>
8575
8576 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
8577 this:</p>
8578
8579 <pre>
8580 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8581 info: testing symlink creation
8582 info: testing subdirectory creation
8583 info: sqlite worked
8584 info: testing fcntl locking
8585   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8586   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8587   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8588   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8589   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8590   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8591 </pre>
8592
8593 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
8594 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
8595 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
8596 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
8597 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
8598 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
8599 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
8600 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
8601
8602 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
8603 it. :)</p>
8604
8605 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
8606 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
8607 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
8608
8609       </div>
8610       <div class="tags">
8611
8612
8613         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8614
8615
8616       </div>
8617     </div>
8618     <div class="padding"></div>
8619
8620     <div class="entry">
8621       <div class="title">
8622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html">Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu</a>
8623       </div>
8624       <div class="date">
8625          7th August 2010
8626       </div>
8627       <div class="body">
8628         <p>A few days ago, I
8629 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
8630 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
8631 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
8632 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
8633 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
8634 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
8635 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
8636 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
8637 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
8638
8639 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
8640 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
8641 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
8642 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
8643 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
8644 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
8645 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
8646 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
8647 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
8648 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
8649 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
8650 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
8651 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
8652 gave it a IP address.</p>
8653
8654 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
8655 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
8656 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
8657 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
8658 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
8659 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
8660 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
8661 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
8662
8663 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
8664 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
8665 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
8666 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
8667 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
8668 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
8669
8670 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
8671 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
8672 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
8673 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
8674 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
8675 with UID and GID values.</p>
8676
8677 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
8678 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8679
8680       </div>
8681       <div class="tags">
8682
8683
8684         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8685
8686
8687       </div>
8688     </div>
8689     <div class="padding"></div>
8690
8691     <div class="entry">
8692       <div class="title">
8693         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo</a>
8694       </div>
8695       <div class="date">
8696          3rd August 2010
8697       </div>
8698       <div class="body">
8699         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
8700 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
8701 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
8702 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
8703 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
8704 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
8705 servers.</p>
8706
8707 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
8708 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
8709 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
8710 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
8711 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
8712 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
8713 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
8714 .uio.no.</p>
8715
8716 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
8717 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
8718 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
8719 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
8720 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
8721 university servers.</p>
8722
8723 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
8724 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
8725 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
8726 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
8727 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
8728 uses.</p>
8729
8730       </div>
8731       <div class="tags">
8732
8733
8734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8735
8736
8737       </div>
8738     </div>
8739     <div class="padding"></div>
8740
8741     <div class="entry">
8742       <div class="title">
8743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
8744       </div>
8745       <div class="date">
8746         27th July 2010
8747       </div>
8748       <div class="body">
8749         <p>I discovered this while doing
8750 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
8751 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
8752 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
8753 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
8754 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
8755
8756 <p>An example is from todays
8757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
8758 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
8759 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
8760 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
8761 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
8762 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
8763 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
8764
8765 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
8766
8767 <blockquote><pre>
8768 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
8769  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
8770   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
8771 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
8772  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
8773 </pre></blockquote>
8774
8775 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
8776 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
8777 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
8778 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
8779 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
8780 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
8781 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
8782 of dependency loops.</p>
8783
8784 <p>Thanks to
8785 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
8786 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
8787 dependencies
8788 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
8789 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
8790
8791 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
8792 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
8793 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
8794 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
8795 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
8796 it.</p>
8797
8798       </div>
8799       <div class="tags">
8800
8801
8802         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>.
8803
8804
8805       </div>
8806     </div>
8807     <div class="padding"></div>
8808
8809     <div class="entry">
8810       <div class="title">
8811         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html">First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released</a>
8812       </div>
8813       <div class="date">
8814         27th July 2010
8815       </div>
8816       <div class="body">
8817         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
8818 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
8819 completed.</p>
8820
8821 <blockquote>
8822 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
8823 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
8824 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
8825 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
8826 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
8827 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
8828 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
8829 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
8830
8831 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
8832 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
8833 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
8834
8835 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
8836 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
8837 much.</p>
8838
8839 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
8840
8841 <ul>
8842 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
8843 <ul>
8844   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
8845          combination with some new artwork
8846   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
8847   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
8848   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
8849   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
8850   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
8851   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
8852   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
8853   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
8854   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
8855 </ul></li>
8856 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
8857     Enabled for:
8858 <ul>
8859   <li>PAM
8860   <li>LDAP
8861   <li>IMAP
8862   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
8863 </ul>
8864 </li>
8865 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
8866 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
8867     fetched from LDAP.</li>
8868 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
8869 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
8870 </ul>
8871 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
8872
8873 <ul>
8874 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
8875     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
8876     for testing.</li>
8877 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
8878     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
8879     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
8880 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
8881 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
8882 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
8883 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
8884     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
8885 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
8886     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
8887     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
8888 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
8889     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
8890     and help out with translations.</li>
8891 </ul>
8892
8893 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
8894
8895 <ul>
8896 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
8897 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
8898 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8899 </ul>
8900 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
8901
8902 <ul>
8903 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
8904 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
8905 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8906 </ul>
8907
8908 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
8909 get closer to the final release.</p>
8910
8911 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
8912
8913 <ul>
8914 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8915 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8916 </ul>
8917
8918 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
8919 <ul>
8920 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
8921 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
8922 </ul>
8923 <p>How to report bugs:
8924 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
8925
8926 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
8927 </blockquote>
8928
8929       </div>
8930       <div class="tags">
8931
8932
8933         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8934
8935
8936       </div>
8937     </div>
8938     <div class="padding"></div>
8939
8940     <div class="entry">
8941       <div class="title">
8942         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html">One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu</a>
8943       </div>
8944       <div class="date">
8945         25th July 2010
8946       </div>
8947       <div class="body">
8948         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
8949 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
8950 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
8951 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
8952 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
8953
8954 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
8955 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
8956 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
8957 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
8958 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
8959 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
8960 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
8961
8962 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
8963 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
8964 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
8965 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
8966 up. :)</p>
8967
8968 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
8969 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
8970 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
8971
8972 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
8973 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
8974 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
8975 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
8976 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
8977 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
8978 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
8979 release another day.</p>
8980
8981 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
8982 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8983
8984       </div>
8985       <div class="tags">
8986
8987
8988         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8989
8990
8991       </div>
8992     </div>
8993     <div class="padding"></div>
8994
8995     <div class="entry">
8996       <div class="title">
8997         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html">OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page</a>
8998       </div>
8999       <div class="date">
9000         18th July 2010
9001       </div>
9002       <div class="body">
9003         <p>Thanks to
9004 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
9005 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
9006 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
9007 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
9008 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
9009 only available from the development server, until more experience is
9010 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
9011
9012 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
9013 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
9014 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
9015 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
9016 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
9017 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
9018 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
9019
9020       </div>
9021       <div class="tags">
9022
9023
9024         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9025
9026
9027       </div>
9028     </div>
9029     <div class="padding"></div>
9030
9031     <div class="entry">
9032       <div class="title">
9033         <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>
9034       </div>
9035       <div class="date">
9036         17th July 2010
9037       </div>
9038       <div class="body">
9039         <p>This is a
9040 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
9041 on my
9042 <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
9043 work</a> on
9044 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9045 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
9046
9047 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9048 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9049 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9050 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
9051
9052 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9053 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9054 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9055
9056 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
9057
9058 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
9059 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9060 the web.
9061
9062 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9063 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9064 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
9065 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9066 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9067 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
9068
9069 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9070 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
9071 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
9072 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
9073 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
9074 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
9075 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
9076 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
9077 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
9078 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
9079 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
9080 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
9081 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
9082 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
9083 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
9084 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
9085
9086 <blockquote><pre>
9087 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9088   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9089   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9090   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9091   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9092   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9093   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9094
9095 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9096   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9097   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
9098   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
9099   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
9100   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
9101 </pre></blockquote>
9102
9103 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
9104 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
9105 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
9106 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9107 also exist.</p>
9108
9109 <blockquote><pre>
9110 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9111 objectclass: top
9112 objectclass: dnsdomain
9113 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9114 dc: tjener
9115 arecord: 10.0.2.2
9116 associateddomain: tjener.intern
9117
9118 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9119 objectclass: top
9120 objectclass: dnsdomain2
9121 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9122 dc: 2
9123 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
9124 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
9125 </pre></blockquote>
9126
9127 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
9128 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
9129 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
9130 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
9131 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
9132 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
9133 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
9134 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
9135 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
9136 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
9137 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
9138 instead.</p>
9139
9140 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
9141 like this:</p>
9142
9143 <blockquote><pre>
9144 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9145   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9146   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9147   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9148   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9149   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9150
9151 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9152   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
9153 </pre></blockquote>
9154
9155 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
9156 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
9157 reverse lookups.</p>
9158
9159 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
9160 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
9161 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
9162 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
9163
9164 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
9165 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
9166 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
9167
9168 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
9169 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
9170 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
9171 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
9172 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
9173
9174 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
9175 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
9176 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
9177 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
9178 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
9179
9180 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
9181 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
9182 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
9183 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
9184 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
9185 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
9186
9187 <blockquote><pre>
9188 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
9189     SUP top
9190     AUXILIARY
9191     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
9192           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
9193           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
9194           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
9195           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
9196     ))
9197 </pre></blockquote>
9198
9199 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
9200 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
9201 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
9202 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
9203 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
9204 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
9205
9206 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
9207
9208 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
9209 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
9210 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
9211 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
9212 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
9213
9214 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
9215 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
9216 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
9217 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
9218
9219 <blockquote><pre>
9220 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
9221 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
9222 </pre></blockquote>
9223
9224 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
9225 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
9226 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
9227 search result is this entry:</p>
9228
9229 <blockquote><pre>
9230 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9231 cn: dhcp
9232 objectClass: top
9233 objectClass: dhcpServer
9234 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9235 </pre></blockquote>
9236
9237 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
9238 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
9239 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
9240 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
9241 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
9242 The search result is this entry:</p>
9243
9244 <blockquote><pre>
9245 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9246 cn: DHCP Config
9247 objectClass: top
9248 objectClass: dhcpService
9249 objectClass: dhcpOptions
9250 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9251 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
9252 dhcpStatements: authoritative
9253 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
9254 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
9255 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
9256 </pre></blockquote>
9257
9258 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
9259 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
9260 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
9261 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
9262 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
9263 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
9264 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
9265 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
9266 related computer objects.</p>
9267
9268 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
9269 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
9270 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
9271 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
9272 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
9273 like:</p>
9274
9275 <blockquote><pre>
9276 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9277 cn: hostname
9278 objectClass: top
9279 objectClass: dhcpHost
9280 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9281 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
9282 </pre></blockquote>
9283
9284 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
9285 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
9286 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
9287 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
9288 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
9289 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
9290 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
9291 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
9292 structural object class.
9293
9294 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
9295
9296 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
9297 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
9298 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
9299 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
9300 in the configuration.</p>
9301
9302 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
9303 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
9304 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
9305 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
9306 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
9307 structure.</p>
9308
9309 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
9310 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
9311
9312 <blockquote><pre>
9313 ou=services
9314   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
9315     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
9316     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9317       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9318         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9319     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9320       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9321         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9322     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
9323       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
9324 </pre></blockquote>
9325
9326 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
9327 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
9328 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
9329 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
9330
9331 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
9332 like this:</p>
9333
9334 <blockquote><pre>
9335 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9336 dc: hostname
9337 objectClass: top
9338 objectClass: dhcpHost
9339 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9340 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
9341 associateddomain: hostname.intern
9342 arecord: 10.11.12.13
9343 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9344 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
9345 </pre></blockquote>
9346
9347 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
9348 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
9349 auxiliary object class.</p>
9350
9351       </div>
9352       <div class="tags">
9353
9354
9355         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>.
9356
9357
9358       </div>
9359     </div>
9360     <div class="padding"></div>
9361
9362     <div class="entry">
9363       <div class="title">
9364         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
9365       </div>
9366       <div class="date">
9367         14th July 2010
9368       </div>
9369       <div class="body">
9370         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
9371 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
9372 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
9373 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
9374 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
9375
9376 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
9377 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
9378
9379 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
9380 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
9381 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
9382 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
9383 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
9384 to a slave DNS server.</p>
9385
9386 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
9387 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
9388 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
9389 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
9390 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
9391 seem to work.</p>
9392
9393 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
9394 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
9395 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
9396 this:</p>
9397
9398 <blockquote><pre>
9399   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9400   cn: hostname
9401   objectClass: dhcphost
9402   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9403   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
9404   associateddomain: hostname.intern
9405   arecord: 10.11.12.13
9406   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9407   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
9408   ldapconfigsound: Y
9409 </pre></blockquote>
9410
9411 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
9412 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
9413 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
9414 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
9415
9416 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
9417 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
9418 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
9419 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
9420 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
9421 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
9422 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
9423 might be a good place to put it.</p>
9424
9425 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9426 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9427
9428       </div>
9429       <div class="tags">
9430
9431
9432         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>.
9433
9434
9435       </div>
9436     </div>
9437     <div class="padding"></div>
9438
9439     <div class="entry">
9440       <div class="title">
9441         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
9442       </div>
9443       <div class="date">
9444         11th July 2010
9445       </div>
9446       <div class="body">
9447         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
9448 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
9449 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
9450 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
9451
9452 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
9453 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
9454 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
9455 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
9456 LTSP clients.</p>
9457
9458 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
9459 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
9460 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
9461
9462 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
9463 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
9464 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
9465
9466 <blockquote><pre>
9467 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
9468 #
9469 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
9470 #
9471 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
9472 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
9473 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
9474 #
9475 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
9476 # existence of attribute names.
9477 #
9478 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
9479 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
9480 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
9481 #
9482 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
9483 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
9484 #
9485 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
9486 #     SUP top
9487 #     AUXILIARY
9488 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
9489
9490 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
9491 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
9492     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
9493     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
9494         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
9495         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
9496             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
9497             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
9498             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
9499             # bass value on to clients
9500             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
9501         done
9502     done
9503 fi
9504 </pre></blockquote>
9505
9506 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
9507 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
9508 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
9509 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
9510 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
9511
9512 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9513 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9514
9515 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
9516 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
9517 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
9518 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
9519 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
9520 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
9521
9522       </div>
9523       <div class="tags">
9524
9525
9526         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>.
9527
9528
9529       </div>
9530     </div>
9531     <div class="padding"></div>
9532
9533     <div class="entry">
9534       <div class="title">
9535         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9536       </div>
9537       <div class="date">
9538          9th July 2010
9539       </div>
9540       <div class="body">
9541         <p>Since
9542 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
9543 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
9544 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
9545 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
9546 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
9547 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
9548 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
9549 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
9550 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
9551 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
9552 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
9553 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
9554 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
9555
9556       </div>
9557       <div class="tags">
9558
9559
9560         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>.
9561
9562
9563       </div>
9564     </div>
9565     <div class="padding"></div>
9566
9567     <div class="entry">
9568       <div class="title">
9569         <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>
9570       </div>
9571       <div class="date">
9572          3rd July 2010
9573       </div>
9574       <div class="body">
9575         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
9576 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
9577 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
9578 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
9579 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
9580 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
9581 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
9582 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
9583
9584 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
9585 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
9586 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
9587 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
9588 publish the difference.</p>
9589
9590 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9591
9592 <blockquote><p>
9593   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9594   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
9595   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
9596   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9597   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
9598   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9599   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
9600   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
9601 </p></blockquote>
9602
9603 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9604
9605 <blockquote><p>
9606   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
9607   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
9608   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
9609   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
9610   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
9611   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
9612   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9613   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9614   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9615   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9616   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
9617   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
9618   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
9619   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
9620   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
9621   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9622   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
9623   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
9624   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
9625   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
9626 </p></blockquote>
9627
9628 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9629
9630 <blockquote><p>
9631   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
9632   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
9633   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9634   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9635   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
9636   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
9637   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
9638   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9639   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9640   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9641   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9642   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
9643   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
9644   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
9645   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
9646   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
9647   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
9648   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
9649   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
9650   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
9651   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
9652 </p></blockquote>
9653
9654 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9655
9656 <blockquote><p>
9657   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
9658   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
9659   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
9660 </p></blockquote>
9661
9662 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
9663 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
9664 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
9665 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
9666 the difference somewhat.
9667
9668       </div>
9669       <div class="tags">
9670
9671
9672         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>.
9673
9674
9675       </div>
9676     </div>
9677     <div class="padding"></div>
9678
9679     <div class="entry">
9680       <div class="title">
9681         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html">Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</a>
9682       </div>
9683       <div class="date">
9684          1st July 2010
9685       </div>
9686       <div class="body">
9687         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
9688 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
9689 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
9690 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
9691 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
9692 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
9693 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
9694 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
9695 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
9696
9697 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
9698
9699 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
9700 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
9701 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
9702 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
9703 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
9704 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
9705 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
9706 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
9707 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
9708 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
9709 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
9710 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
9711 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
9712 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
9713 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
9714
9715 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
9716
9717 <blockquote><pre>
9718 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
9719 </pre></blockquote>
9720
9721 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
9722 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
9723 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
9724 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
9725 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
9726 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
9727 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
9728 on how to get this working.</p>
9729
9730 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
9731 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
9732 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
9733 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
9734 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
9735 instructions I found in the
9736 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
9737 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
9738
9739 <blockquote><pre>
9740         debug-level             0
9741         reload-count            unlimited
9742         paranoia                no
9743
9744         enable-cache            passwd          yes
9745         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
9746         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
9747         suggested-size          passwd          211
9748         check-files             passwd          yes
9749         persistent              passwd          yes
9750         shared                  passwd          yes
9751         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
9752         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
9753
9754         enable-cache            group           yes
9755         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
9756         negative-time-to-live   group           20
9757         suggested-size          group           211
9758         check-files             group           yes
9759         persistent              group           yes
9760         shared                  group           yes
9761         max-db-size             group           33554432
9762         auto-propagate          group           yes
9763
9764         enable-cache            hosts           no
9765         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
9766         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
9767         suggested-size          hosts           211
9768         check-files             hosts           yes
9769         persistent              hosts           yes
9770         shared                  hosts           yes
9771         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
9772
9773         enable-cache            services        yes
9774         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
9775         negative-time-to-live   services        20
9776         suggested-size          services        211
9777         check-files             services        yes
9778         persistent              services        yes
9779         shared                  services        yes
9780         max-db-size             services        33554432
9781 </pre></blockquote>
9782
9783 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
9784 automatically like the one provided in
9785 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
9786 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
9787 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
9788 look like this:</p>
9789
9790 <blockquote><pre>
9791 passwd:         files ldap
9792 group:          files ldap
9793 shadow:         files ldap
9794 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
9795 networks:       files
9796 protocols:      files
9797 services:       files
9798 ethers:         files
9799 rpc:            files
9800 netgroup:       files ldap
9801 </pre></blockquote>
9802
9803 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
9804 shadow and netgroup.</p>
9805
9806 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
9807 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
9808 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
9809 attributes cached.
9810
9811 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
9812   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
9813
9814 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
9815 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
9816 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
9817 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
9818 discovered sssd.</p>
9819
9820 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
9821
9822 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
9823 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
9824 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
9825 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
9826 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
9827 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
9828 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
9829 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
9830 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
9831 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
9832 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
9833 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
9834 version 1.2 is now in testing.
9835
9836 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
9837 roaming setup I want</p>
9838
9839 <blockquote><pre>
9840 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
9841 </pre></blockquote>
9842
9843 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
9844 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
9845
9846 <blockquote><pre>
9847 [sssd]
9848 config_file_version = 2
9849 reconnection_retries = 3
9850 sbus_timeout = 30
9851 services = nss, pam
9852 domains = INTERN
9853
9854 [nss]
9855 filter_groups = root
9856 filter_users = root
9857 reconnection_retries = 3
9858
9859 [pam]
9860 reconnection_retries = 3
9861
9862 [domain/INTERN]
9863 enumerate = false
9864 cache_credentials = true
9865
9866 id_provider = ldap
9867 auth_provider = ldap
9868 chpass_provider = ldap
9869
9870 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
9871 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9872 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
9873 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9874 </pre></blockquote>
9875
9876 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
9877 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
9878
9879 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
9880 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
9881 modify it manually.</p>
9882
9883 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9884 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9885
9886       </div>
9887       <div class="tags">
9888
9889
9890         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9891
9892
9893       </div>
9894     </div>
9895     <div class="padding"></div>
9896
9897     <div class="entry">
9898       <div class="title">
9899         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9900       </div>
9901       <div class="date">
9902         28th June 2010
9903       </div>
9904       <div class="body">
9905         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
9906 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
9907 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
9908 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
9909 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
9910 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
9911 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
9912 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
9913 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
9914 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
9915
9916 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
9917 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
9918 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
9919 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
9920 released.</p>
9921
9922 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
9923 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
9924 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
9925 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
9926
9927 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
9928 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9929
9930 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
9931 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
9932 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
9933 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
9934 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
9935
9936       </div>
9937       <div class="tags">
9938
9939
9940         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>.
9941
9942
9943       </div>
9944     </div>
9945     <div class="padding"></div>
9946
9947     <div class="entry">
9948       <div class="title">
9949         <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>
9950       </div>
9951       <div class="date">
9952         24th June 2010
9953       </div>
9954       <div class="body">
9955         <p>A while back, I
9956 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
9957 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
9958 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
9959 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
9960
9961 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
9962 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
9963 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
9964 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
9965
9966 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
9967 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
9968 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
9969 Debian Edu.</p>
9970
9971 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
9972 the
9973 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
9974 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
9975 available today from IETF.</p>
9976
9977 <pre>
9978 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
9979 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
9980 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
9981  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
9982         NAME 'dhcpHost'
9983         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
9984 -       SUP top
9985 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
9986         MUST cn
9987         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
9988         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
9989 </pre>
9990
9991 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
9992 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
9993 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
9994
9995 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9996 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9997
9998       </div>
9999       <div class="tags">
10000
10001
10002         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>.
10003
10004
10005       </div>
10006     </div>
10007     <div class="padding"></div>
10008
10009     <div class="entry">
10010       <div class="title">
10011         <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>
10012       </div>
10013       <div class="date">
10014         16th June 2010
10015       </div>
10016       <div class="body">
10017         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10018 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10019 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10020 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10021 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10022 this:
10023
10024 <blockquote><pre>
10025 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10026 tasksel --new-install
10027 </pre></blockquote>
10028
10029 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10030 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10031 any output what so ever.
10032
10033 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10034 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10035 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10036 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10037 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10038 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10039 code like this:
10040
10041 <blockquote><pre>
10042 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10043 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10044 $cmd
10045 </pre></blockquote>
10046
10047 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
10048 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10049 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10050 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10051 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10052 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10053 installation.</p>
10054
10055 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10056 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10057 like this.</p>
10058
10059       </div>
10060       <div class="tags">
10061
10062
10063         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>.
10064
10065
10066       </div>
10067     </div>
10068     <div class="padding"></div>
10069
10070     <div class="entry">
10071       <div class="title">
10072         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
10073       </div>
10074       <div class="date">
10075         13th June 2010
10076       </div>
10077       <div class="body">
10078         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
10079 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
10080 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
10081 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
10082 pages.</p>
10083
10084 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
10085 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
10086 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
10087 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
10088 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
10089 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
10090 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
10091 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
10092 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
10093 see how the project is doing.</p>
10094
10095 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
10096 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
10097 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
10098 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
10099 Windows.  This is great.</p>
10100
10101       </div>
10102       <div class="tags">
10103
10104
10105         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
10106
10107
10108       </div>
10109     </div>
10110     <div class="padding"></div>
10111
10112     <div class="entry">
10113       <div class="title">
10114         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
10115       </div>
10116       <div class="date">
10117         13th June 2010
10118       </div>
10119       <div class="body">
10120         <p>My
10121 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
10122 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
10123 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10124 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
10125 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10126 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10127 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
10128
10129 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10130 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10131 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10132 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10133 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10134 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10135 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10136 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
10137
10138 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10139 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10140 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10141 too surprising.</p>
10142
10143 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10144 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10145 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10146 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10147 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10148 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10149 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
10150 continue.</p>
10151
10152 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
10153 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10154   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10155   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10156   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10157   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10158   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10159   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10160   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10161   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10162   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10163   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10164   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10165   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10166   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10167   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10168   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10169   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10170   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10171   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10172   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10173   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10174   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10175   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10176   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10177   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10178   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10179   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10180   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10181   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
10182
10183 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
10184
10185 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10186   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10187   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10188   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10189   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10190   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10191   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10192   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10193   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10194   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10195   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10196   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10197   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10198   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10199   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10200   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10201   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10202   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10203   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10204   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10205   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10206   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10207   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10208   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10209   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10210   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10211   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10212   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10213   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10214   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10215   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10216   zip</p>
10217
10218 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
10219
10220 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10221   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10222   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10223   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10224   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10225   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10226   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10227   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10228   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10229   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10230   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10231   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10232   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10233   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10234   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10235   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10236   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10237   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10238   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10239   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10240   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10241   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10242   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10243   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10244   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10245   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10246   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10247   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
10248
10249 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
10250 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10251   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10252   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10253   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10254   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10255   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10256   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10257   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10258   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10259   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10260   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10261   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10262   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10263   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10264   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10265   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10266   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10267   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10268   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10269   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10270   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10271   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10272   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10273   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10274   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10275   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10276   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10277   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10278   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10279   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10280   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10281   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10282   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10283   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10284   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10285   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10286   xulrunner-1.9</p>
10287
10288
10289       </div>
10290       <div class="tags">
10291
10292
10293         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>.
10294
10295
10296       </div>
10297     </div>
10298     <div class="padding"></div>
10299
10300     <div class="entry">
10301       <div class="title">
10302         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
10303       </div>
10304       <div class="date">
10305         11th June 2010
10306       </div>
10307       <div class="body">
10308         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10309 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10310 have been discovered and reported in the process
10311 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
10312 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
10313 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
10314 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10315 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
10316
10317 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10318 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10319 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10320 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10321 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10322 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
10323
10324 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10325 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10326 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10327 is created.  The bug report
10328 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
10329 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10330 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
10331 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
10332 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
10333 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
10334 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
10335 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
10336 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
10337 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
10338 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
10339 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
10340 Debian Squeeze.</p>
10341
10342 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
10343 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
10344 trick:</p>
10345
10346 <blockquote><pre>
10347 #!/bin/sh
10348 set -ex
10349
10350 if [ "$1" ] ; then
10351     desktop=$1
10352 else
10353     desktop=gnome
10354 fi
10355
10356 from=lenny
10357 to=squeeze
10358
10359 exec &lt; /dev/null
10360 unset LANG
10361 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
10362 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
10363 fuser -mv .
10364 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
10365 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10366 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
10367 #!/bin/sh
10368 exit 101
10369 EOF
10370 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
10371 exit_cleanup() {
10372     umount $tmpdir/proc
10373 }
10374 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
10375 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
10376 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
10377
10378 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
10379
10380 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
10381 # to return the correct answers.
10382 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
10383     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
10384
10385 # Include the desktop and laptop task
10386 for test in desktop laptop ; do
10387     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
10388 #!/bin/sh
10389 exit 2
10390 EOF
10391     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
10392 done
10393
10394 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10395 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
10396 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
10397 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
10398
10399 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
10400 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10401 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10402 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
10403 fuser -mv
10404 </pre></blockquote>
10405
10406 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
10407 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
10408 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
10409 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
10410 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
10411 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
10412
10413 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
10414 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
10415 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
10416 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
10417 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
10418 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
10419 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
10420
10421 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
10422 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
10423 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
10424 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
10425 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
10426 packages.</p>
10427
10428       </div>
10429       <div class="tags">
10430
10431
10432         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>.
10433
10434
10435       </div>
10436     </div>
10437     <div class="padding"></div>
10438
10439     <div class="entry">
10440       <div class="title">
10441         <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>
10442       </div>
10443       <div class="date">
10444          6th June 2010
10445       </div>
10446       <div class="body">
10447         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
10448 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
10449 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
10450 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
10451 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
10452 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
10453 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
10454
10455 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
10456 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
10457 COLUMNS):</p>
10458
10459 <blockquote><pre>
10460 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
10461 previous=N
10462 PREVLEVEL=
10463 RUNLEVEL=
10464 runlevel=S
10465 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
10466 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
10467 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
10468 </pre></blockquote>
10469
10470 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
10471 script.</p>
10472
10473 <blockquote><pre>
10474 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
10475 previous=N
10476 PREVLEVEL=N
10477 RUNLEVEL=S
10478 runlevel=S
10479 </pre></blockquote>
10480
10481 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
10482 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
10483 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
10484
10485 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
10486 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
10487 choice.</p>
10488
10489       </div>
10490       <div class="tags">
10491
10492
10493         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>.
10494
10495
10496       </div>
10497     </div>
10498     <div class="padding"></div>
10499
10500     <div class="entry">
10501       <div class="title">
10502         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
10503       </div>
10504       <div class="date">
10505          6th June 2010
10506       </div>
10507       <div class="body">
10508         <p>Via the
10509 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
10510 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
10511 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
10512 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
10513 following the standards wars of today.</p>
10514
10515       </div>
10516       <div class="tags">
10517
10518
10519         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>.
10520
10521
10522       </div>
10523     </div>
10524     <div class="padding"></div>
10525
10526     <div class="entry">
10527       <div class="title">
10528         <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>
10529       </div>
10530       <div class="date">
10531          3rd June 2010
10532       </div>
10533       <div class="body">
10534         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
10535 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
10536 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
10537 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
10538 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
10539
10540 <blockquote><pre>
10541 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
10542   vendor                    count
10543   Dell Computer Corporation     1
10544     PowerEdge 1750              1
10545   IBM                           1
10546     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
10547   Intel                         2
10548   [no-dmi-info]                 3
10549 maintainer:~#
10550 </pre></blockquote>
10551
10552 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
10553 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
10554 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
10555 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
10556 option to list the individual machines.</p>
10557
10558 <p>A larger list is
10559 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
10560 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
10561 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
10562 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
10563 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
10564 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
10565 collector.</p>
10566
10567       </div>
10568       <div class="tags">
10569
10570
10571         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>.
10572
10573
10574       </div>
10575     </div>
10576     <div class="padding"></div>
10577
10578     <div class="entry">
10579       <div class="title">
10580         <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>
10581       </div>
10582       <div class="date">
10583          1st June 2010
10584       </div>
10585       <div class="body">
10586         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
10587 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
10588 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
10589 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
10590 wait.</p>
10591
10592 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
10593 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
10594 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
10595 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
10596 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
10597 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
10598
10599 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
10600 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
10601 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
10602 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
10603 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
10604 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
10605 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
10606 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
10607
10608 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
10609
10610       </div>
10611       <div class="tags">
10612
10613
10614         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>.
10615
10616
10617       </div>
10618     </div>
10619     <div class="padding"></div>
10620
10621     <div class="entry">
10622       <div class="title">
10623         <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>
10624       </div>
10625       <div class="date">
10626         27th May 2010
10627       </div>
10628       <div class="body">
10629         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
10630 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
10631 issues are known and should be solved:
10632
10633 <p><ul>
10634
10635 <li>The wicd package seen to
10636 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
10637 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
10638 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
10639 seem to be on the case.</li>
10640
10641 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
10642 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
10643 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
10644 maintainer is on the case.</li>
10645
10646 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
10647 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
10648 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
10649 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
10650 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
10651 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
10652 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
10653 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
10654
10655 </ul></p>
10656
10657 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
10658 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
10659 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
10660 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
10661
10662 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10663 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10664 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10665 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10666
10667 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
10668
10669       </div>
10670       <div class="tags">
10671
10672
10673         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>.
10674
10675
10676       </div>
10677     </div>
10678     <div class="padding"></div>
10679
10680     <div class="entry">
10681       <div class="title">
10682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
10683       </div>
10684       <div class="date">
10685         22nd May 2010
10686       </div>
10687       <div class="body">
10688         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
10689 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
10690 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
10691 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
10692
10693 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
10694 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
10695 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
10696 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
10697 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
10698 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
10699 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
10700 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
10701 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
10702 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
10703 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
10704 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
10705 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
10706 going to work.</p>
10707
10708 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
10709 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
10710 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
10711 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
10712 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
10713 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
10714 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
10715 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
10716 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
10717 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
10718 Edu.</p>
10719
10720 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10721 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10722 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10723 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10724 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10725 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
10726
10727 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10728 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
10729
10730       </div>
10731       <div class="tags">
10732
10733
10734         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>.
10735
10736
10737       </div>
10738     </div>
10739     <div class="padding"></div>
10740
10741     <div class="entry">
10742       <div class="title">
10743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html">Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</a>
10744       </div>
10745       <div class="date">
10746         19th May 2010
10747       </div>
10748       <div class="body">
10749         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
10750 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
10751 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
10752 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
10753 into unstable.  The
10754 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
10755 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
10756 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
10757 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
10758 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
10759 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
10760 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
10761
10762 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
10763 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
10764 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
10765 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
10766 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
10767 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
10768 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
10769 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
10770
10771 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
10772 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
10773 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
10774 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
10775 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
10776 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
10777 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
10778
10779 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
10780 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
10781 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
10782 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
10783 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
10784 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
10785 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
10786 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
10787 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
10788 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
10789 on the home directory servers.</p>
10790
10791 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
10792 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
10793 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
10794 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
10795 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
10796 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
10797
10798 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10799 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10800
10801       </div>
10802       <div class="tags">
10803
10804
10805         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10806
10807
10808       </div>
10809     </div>
10810     <div class="padding"></div>
10811
10812     <div class="entry">
10813       <div class="title">
10814         <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>
10815       </div>
10816       <div class="date">
10817         14th May 2010
10818       </div>
10819       <div class="body">
10820         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
10821 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
10822 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
10823 expected, if I am to believe the
10824 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10825 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
10826 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
10827 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
10828 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
10829 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
10830 version.</p>
10831
10832 More information about
10833 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10834 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
10835 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
10836 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10837
10838 <blockquote><pre>
10839 CONCURRENCY=none
10840 </pre></blockquote>
10841
10842 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10843 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10844 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10845 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10846
10847       </div>
10848       <div class="tags">
10849
10850
10851         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>.
10852
10853
10854       </div>
10855     </div>
10856     <div class="padding"></div>
10857
10858     <div class="entry">
10859       <div class="title">
10860         <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>
10861       </div>
10862       <div class="date">
10863         14th May 2010
10864       </div>
10865       <div class="body">
10866         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
10867 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
10868 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
10869 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
10870 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
10871 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
10872 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
10873 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
10874
10875 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
10876 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
10877 this on the collector host:</p>
10878
10879 <blockquote><pre>
10880 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
10881 </pre></blockquote>
10882
10883 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
10884 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
10885
10886 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
10887 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
10888 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
10889 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
10890 written yet.</p>
10891
10892       </div>
10893       <div class="tags">
10894
10895
10896         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>.
10897
10898
10899       </div>
10900     </div>
10901     <div class="padding"></div>
10902
10903     <div class="entry">
10904       <div class="title">
10905         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
10906       </div>
10907       <div class="date">
10908         13th May 2010
10909       </div>
10910       <div class="body">
10911         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
10912 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
10913 has been
10914 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
10915
10916 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
10917 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
10918 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
10919 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
10920 based boot system.  Tollef is
10921 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
10922 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
10923 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
10924 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
10925 at the moment do not.</p>
10926
10927 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
10928 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
10929 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
10930 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
10931 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
10932 way forward.</p>
10933
10934 <p>In the mean time, based on the
10935 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10936 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
10937 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
10938 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
10939 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
10940 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
10941 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
10942 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
10943
10944       </div>
10945       <div class="tags">
10946
10947
10948         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>.
10949
10950
10951       </div>
10952     </div>
10953     <div class="padding"></div>
10954
10955     <div class="entry">
10956       <div class="title">
10957         <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>
10958       </div>
10959       <div class="date">
10960          6th May 2010
10961       </div>
10962       <div class="body">
10963         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
10964 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
10965 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
10966 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
10967 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10968 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
10969 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10970
10971 <blockquote><pre>
10972 CONCURRENCY=makefile
10973 </pre></blockquote>
10974
10975 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
10976 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
10977 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
10978 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
10979 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
10980 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
10981 make this happen.</p>
10982
10983 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
10984 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
10985 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
10986 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
10987 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
10988
10989 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
10990 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
10991 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
10992 fix the remaining issues.</p>
10993
10994 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10995 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10996 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10997 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10998
10999       </div>
11000       <div class="tags">
11001
11002
11003         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>.
11004
11005
11006       </div>
11007     </div>
11008     <div class="padding"></div>
11009
11010     <div class="entry">
11011       <div class="title">
11012         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html">Forcing new users to change their password on first login</a>
11013       </div>
11014       <div class="date">
11015          2nd May 2010
11016       </div>
11017       <div class="body">
11018         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
11019 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
11020 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
11021
11022 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
11023 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
11024 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
11025 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
11026 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
11027
11028 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
11029 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
11030
11031 <blockquote><pre>
11032 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
11033 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
11034 Password expires                                        : never
11035 Password inactive                                       : never
11036 Account expires                                         : never
11037 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
11038 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
11039 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
11040 root@tjener:~#
11041 </pre></blockquote>
11042
11043 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
11044 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
11045 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
11046 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
11047 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
11048 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
11049
11050 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
11051 intended:</p>
11052
11053 <blockquote><pre>
11054 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
11055 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
11056 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
11057 Password expires                                        : never
11058 Password inactive                                       : never
11059 Account expires                                         : never
11060 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
11061 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
11062 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
11063 root@tjener:~#
11064 </pre></blockquote>
11065
11066 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
11067 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
11068 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
11069
11070 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
11071 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
11072
11073 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
11074 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11075
11076 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
11077 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
11078 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
11079 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
11080 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
11081 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
11082 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
11083
11084 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
11085 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
11086 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
11087 change.</p>
11088
11089       </div>
11090       <div class="tags">
11091
11092
11093         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11094
11095
11096       </div>
11097     </div>
11098     <div class="padding"></div>
11099
11100     <div class="entry">
11101       <div class="title">
11102         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html">Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</a>
11103       </div>
11104       <div class="date">
11105         28th April 2010
11106       </div>
11107       <div class="body">
11108         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
11109 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
11110 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
11111 and go.</p>
11112
11113 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
11114 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
11115 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
11116 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
11117
11118 <ul>
11119
11120  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
11121    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
11122    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
11123    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
11124    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
11125    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
11126    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
11127    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
11128    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
11129    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
11130    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
11131    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
11132
11133  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
11134    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
11135    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
11136    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
11137    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
11138    or the Fedora developed
11139    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
11140    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
11141
11142  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
11143    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
11144    directory, using unison.</li>
11145
11146  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
11147    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
11148    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
11149    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
11150    implemented.</li>
11151
11152  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
11153    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
11154
11155  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
11156    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
11157    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
11158
11159 </ul>
11160
11161 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
11162 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
11163 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
11164 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
11165 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
11166 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
11167 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
11168 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
11169 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
11170
11171 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11172 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
11173
11174       </div>
11175       <div class="tags">
11176
11177
11178         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11179
11180
11181       </div>
11182     </div>
11183     <div class="padding"></div>
11184
11185     <div class="entry">
11186       <div class="title">
11187         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html">Great book: "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future"</a>
11188       </div>
11189       <div class="date">
11190         19th April 2010
11191       </div>
11192       <div class="body">
11193         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
11194 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
11195 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
11196 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
11197 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
11198 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
11199 restrictions on the web, for example from
11200 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
11201 epub-version from
11202 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
11203 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
11204 strongly recommend this book.</p>
11205
11206       </div>
11207       <div class="tags">
11208
11209
11210         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11211
11212
11213       </div>
11214     </div>
11215     <div class="padding"></div>
11216
11217     <div class="entry">
11218       <div class="title">
11219         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
11220       </div>
11221       <div class="date">
11222         14th April 2010
11223       </div>
11224       <div class="body">
11225         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
11226 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
11227 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
11228 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
11229 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
11230 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
11231 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
11232 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
11233 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
11234
11235 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
11236 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
11237 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
11238 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
11239 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
11240
11241 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
11242 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
11243
11244 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
11245 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
11246 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
11247 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
11248 to work properly.</p>
11249
11250 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
11251 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
11252 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
11253 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
11254 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
11255 time.</p>
11256
11257 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
11258 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
11259 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
11260 up in a few days.</p>
11261
11262       </div>
11263       <div class="tags">
11264
11265
11266         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11267
11268
11269       </div>
11270     </div>
11271     <div class="padding"></div>
11272
11273     <div class="entry">
11274       <div class="title">
11275         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html">After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented</a>
11276       </div>
11277       <div class="date">
11278          6th March 2010
11279       </div>
11280       <div class="body">
11281         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
11282 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
11283 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
11284 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
11285 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
11286 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
11287
11288 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
11289 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
11290 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
11291 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
11292
11293 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
11294 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
11295 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
11296 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
11297 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
11298 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
11299
11300       </div>
11301       <div class="tags">
11302
11303
11304         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11305
11306
11307       </div>
11308     </div>
11309     <div class="padding"></div>
11310
11311     <div class="entry">
11312       <div class="title">
11313         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html">Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues</a>
11314       </div>
11315       <div class="date">
11316         11th February 2010
11317       </div>
11318       <div class="body">
11319         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
11320 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
11321 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
11322 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
11323 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
11324 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
11325 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
11326
11327 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
11328
11329 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
11330 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
11331 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
11332 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
11333
11334       </div>
11335       <div class="tags">
11336
11337
11338         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11339
11340
11341       </div>
11342     </div>
11343     <div class="padding"></div>
11344
11345     <div class="entry">
11346       <div class="title">
11347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
11348       </div>
11349       <div class="date">
11350         27th January 2010
11351       </div>
11352       <div class="body">
11353         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
11354 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
11355 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
11356 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
11357 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
11358 further.</p>
11359
11360 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
11361 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
11362 configured to be a server for the
11363 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
11364 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
11365 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
11366 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
11367 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
11368 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
11369 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
11370 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
11371 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
11372 and Nagios configuration.</p>
11373
11374 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
11375 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
11376 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
11377 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
11378
11379 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
11380 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
11381 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
11382 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
11383 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
11384 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
11385 the machine.</p>
11386
11387 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
11388 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
11389 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
11390 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
11391
11392 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
11393 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
11394 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
11395 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
11396 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
11397 everything is taken care of.</p>
11398
11399       </div>
11400       <div class="tags">
11401
11402
11403         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
11404
11405
11406       </div>
11407     </div>
11408     <div class="padding"></div>
11409
11410     <div class="entry">
11411       <div class="title">
11412         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html">Relative popularity of document formats (MS Office vs. ODF)</a>
11413       </div>
11414       <div class="date">
11415         12th August 2009
11416       </div>
11417       <div class="body">
11418         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
11419 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
11420 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
11421 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
11422
11423 <table>
11424 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
11425 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
11426 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
11427 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
11428 </table>
11429
11430 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
11431 got these numbers:</p>
11432
11433 <table>
11434 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
11435 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
11436 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
11437 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
11438 </table>
11439
11440 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
11441
11442 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
11443 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
11444 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
11445 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
11446 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
11447
11448
11449 <table>
11450 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
11451 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
11452 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
11453 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
11454 </table>
11455
11456 <p>And with 'site:no':
11457
11458 <table>
11459 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
11460 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
11461 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
11462 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
11463 </table>
11464
11465 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
11466 numbers.</p>
11467
11468       </div>
11469       <div class="tags">
11470
11471
11472         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
11473
11474
11475       </div>
11476     </div>
11477     <div class="padding"></div>
11478
11479     <div class="entry">
11480       <div class="title">
11481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
11482       </div>
11483       <div class="date">
11484          8th August 2009
11485       </div>
11486       <div class="body">
11487         <p>According to <a
11488 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
11489 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
11490 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
11491 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
11492 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
11493 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
11494 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
11495 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
11496 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
11497 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
11498
11499 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
11500 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
11501 seminar this autumn.</p>
11502
11503       </div>
11504       <div class="tags">
11505
11506
11507         Tags: <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>.
11508
11509
11510       </div>
11511     </div>
11512     <div class="padding"></div>
11513
11514     <div class="entry">
11515       <div class="title">
11516         <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>
11517       </div>
11518       <div class="date">
11519         27th July 2009
11520       </div>
11521       <div class="body">
11522         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11523 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11524 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11525 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11526 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11527 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11528 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
11529
11530 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11531 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11532 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
11533
11534       </div>
11535       <div class="tags">
11536
11537
11538         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>.
11539
11540
11541       </div>
11542     </div>
11543     <div class="padding"></div>
11544
11545     <div class="entry">
11546       <div class="title">
11547         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
11548       </div>
11549       <div class="date">
11550         22nd July 2009
11551       </div>
11552       <div class="body">
11553         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11554 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11555 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11556 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11557 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11558 the package up to date.</p>
11559
11560 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11561 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11562 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11563 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11564 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11565 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11566 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11567 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
11568 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11569 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11570 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11571 working on the future release.</p>
11572
11573 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11574 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
11575
11576       </div>
11577       <div class="tags">
11578
11579
11580         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>.
11581
11582
11583       </div>
11584     </div>
11585     <div class="padding"></div>
11586
11587     <div class="entry">
11588       <div class="title">
11589         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
11590       </div>
11591       <div class="date">
11592         24th June 2009
11593       </div>
11594       <div class="body">
11595         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11596 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11597 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11598 funded
11599 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
11600 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11601 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11602 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11603 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11604 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
11605
11606 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11607 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11608 boot:</p>
11609
11610 <ul>
11611
11612 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
11613
11614 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11615    clock is in UTC.</li>
11616
11617 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11618    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11619    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
11620
11621 </ul>
11622
11623 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11624 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
11625 Villegas</a>.
11626
11627 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11628 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11629 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11630 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11631 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11632 using this.</p>
11633
11634 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11635 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11636 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11637 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11638 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11639 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11640 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
11641
11642       </div>
11643       <div class="tags">
11644
11645
11646         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>.
11647
11648
11649       </div>
11650     </div>
11651     <div class="padding"></div>
11652
11653     <div class="entry">
11654       <div class="title">
11655         <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>
11656       </div>
11657       <div class="date">
11658          2nd May 2009
11659       </div>
11660       <div class="body">
11661         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11662 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11663 do not yet know them.</p>
11664
11665 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
11666 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11667 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
11668 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11669 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11670 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11671 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
11672 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
11673 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11674 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11675 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11676
11677 <p>The second one is
11678 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11679 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11680 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11681 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11682 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11683 and the company behind it is running
11684 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11685 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11686 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11687 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11688 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11689 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11690 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11691 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11692
11693 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11694 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11695 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11696 surrounded by today.</p>
11697
11698       </div>
11699       <div class="tags">
11700
11701
11702         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>.
11703
11704
11705       </div>
11706     </div>
11707     <div class="padding"></div>
11708
11709     <div class="entry">
11710       <div class="title">
11711         <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>
11712       </div>
11713       <div class="date">
11714         28th April 2009
11715       </div>
11716       <div class="body">
11717         <p>Julien Blache
11718 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11719 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11720 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11721 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11722 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11723 properties.</p>
11724
11725       </div>
11726       <div class="tags">
11727
11728
11729         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>.
11730
11731
11732       </div>
11733     </div>
11734     <div class="padding"></div>
11735
11736     <div class="entry">
11737       <div class="title">
11738         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
11739       </div>
11740       <div class="date">
11741          5th April 2009
11742       </div>
11743       <div class="body">
11744         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
11745 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
11746 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
11747 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
11748 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
11749 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
11750 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
11751 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
11752
11753 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
11754 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
11755 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
11756   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
11757   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
11758
11759 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
11760 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
11761 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
11762 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
11763
11764 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
11765 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
11766 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
11767 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
11768
11769 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
11770 set -e
11771 URL="$1"
11772 SAVEFILE="$2"
11773 DURATION="$3"
11774 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
11775   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
11776   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
11777 pid=$!
11778 sleep $DURATION
11779 kill $pid
11780 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
11781
11782       </div>
11783       <div class="tags">
11784
11785
11786         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
11787
11788
11789       </div>
11790     </div>
11791     <div class="padding"></div>
11792
11793     <div class="entry">
11794       <div class="title">
11795         <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>
11796       </div>
11797       <div class="date">
11798         30th March 2009
11799       </div>
11800       <div class="body">
11801         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11802 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11803 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11804 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11805 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11806 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11807 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11808 application.</p>
11809
11810 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11811 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11812 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11813 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11814 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11815 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11816 blocked from doing so.</p>
11817
11818 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11819 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11820 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11821 requirements change.</p>
11822
11823 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11824 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11825 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11826
11827       </div>
11828       <div class="tags">
11829
11830
11831         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>.
11832
11833
11834       </div>
11835     </div>
11836     <div class="padding"></div>
11837
11838     <div class="entry">
11839       <div class="title">
11840         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
11841       </div>
11842       <div class="date">
11843         29th March 2009
11844       </div>
11845       <div class="body">
11846         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11847 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11848 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11849 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11850 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11851 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11852 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11853 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11854 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11855 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11856 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11857 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11858 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11859 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11860 now. :)</p>
11861
11862       </div>
11863       <div class="tags">
11864
11865
11866         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>.
11867
11868
11869       </div>
11870     </div>
11871     <div class="padding"></div>
11872
11873     <div class="entry">
11874       <div class="title">
11875         <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>
11876       </div>
11877       <div class="date">
11878         29th March 2009
11879       </div>
11880       <div class="body">
11881         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11882 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11883 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11884 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11885 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11886 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
11887
11888 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
11889 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11890 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11891 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11892 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11893 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11894 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11895 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11896 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11897 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11898 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11899 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11900 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
11901
11902 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11903 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11904 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11905 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
11906
11907 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11908 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
11909
11910 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11911 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11912 new IETF work group?</p>
11913
11914       </div>
11915       <div class="tags">
11916
11917
11918         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>.
11919
11920
11921       </div>
11922     </div>
11923     <div class="padding"></div>
11924
11925     <div class="entry">
11926       <div class="title">
11927         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers</a>
11928       </div>
11929       <div class="date">
11930         28th February 2009
11931       </div>
11932       <div class="body">
11933         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
11934 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
11935 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
11936 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
11937 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
11938 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
11939 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
11940 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
11941 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
11942 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
11943 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
11944 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
11945 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
11946 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
11947 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
11948 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
11949 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
11950 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
11951 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
11952 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
11953 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
11954 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
11955 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
11956 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
11957 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
11958 machine.</p>
11959
11960 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
11961 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
11962 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
11963 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
11964 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
11965 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
11966 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
11967
11968 <pre>
11969 use LWP::Simple;
11970 use POSIX;
11971 use WWW::Mechanize;
11972 use Date::Parse;
11973 [...]
11974 sub get_support_info {
11975     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
11976     my $str;
11977
11978     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
11979         # fetch website from Dell support
11980         my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;l=no&amp;s=dhs&amp;ServiceTag=$serial";
11981         my $webpage = get($url);
11982         return undef unless ($webpage);
11983
11984         my $daysleft = -1;
11985         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
11986         foreach my $line (@lines) {
11987             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
11988             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
11989             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
11990
11991             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
11992             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
11993             my $lastend = "";
11994             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
11995                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
11996
11997                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
11998                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
11999                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12000                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
12001                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
12002                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
12003                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
12004             }
12005             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
12006             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
12007                 if ($lastend lt $today);
12008         }
12009     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
12010         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
12011         my $url =
12012             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
12013         $mech->get($url);
12014         my $fields = {
12015             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
12016             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
12017             'country' => 'NO',
12018             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
12019             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
12020         };
12021         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
12022                             fields      => $fields );
12023         # Next step is screen scraping
12024         my $content = $mech->content();
12025
12026         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
12027         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
12028         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
12029         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
12030
12031         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
12032
12033         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
12034             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
12035                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
12036             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
12037             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12038                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
12039             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
12040                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
12041
12042             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
12043
12044             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
12045                 if ($end lt $today);
12046         }
12047     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
12048         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
12049         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
12050         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
12051             my $content =
12052                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
12053             if ($content) {
12054                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
12055                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
12056                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
12057                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
12058
12059                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
12060                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
12061
12062                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
12063
12064                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
12065                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
12066                     if ($end lt $today);
12067             }
12068         }
12069     }
12070     return $str;
12071 }
12072 </pre>
12073
12074 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
12075 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
12076 from dmidecode.</p>
12077
12078 <pre>
12079 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
12080                        "447707-B21");
12081 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
12082 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
12083                        "1234567");
12084 </pre>
12085
12086 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
12087 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
12088
12089 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
12090 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
12091 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
12092 do so.</p>
12093
12094       </div>
12095       <div class="tags">
12096
12097
12098         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12099
12100
12101       </div>
12102     </div>
12103     <div class="padding"></div>
12104
12105     <div class="entry">
12106       <div class="title">
12107         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
12108       </div>
12109       <div class="date">
12110         20th February 2009
12111       </div>
12112       <div class="body">
12113         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
12114 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
12115 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
12116 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
12117 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
12118 the "missing" computer.</p>
12119
12120 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
12121 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
12122 code blocks as defined in the
12123 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
12124 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
12125 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
12126 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
12127 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
12128 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
12129 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
12130 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
12131 codes.</p>
12132
12133 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
12134 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
12135 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
12136 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
12137 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
12138 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
12139
12140 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
12141 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
12142 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
12143 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
12144 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
12145 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
12146 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
12147 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
12148 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
12149 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
12150
12151 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
12152 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
12153 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
12154
12155       </div>
12156       <div class="tags">
12157
12158
12159         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
12160
12161
12162       </div>
12163     </div>
12164     <div class="padding"></div>
12165
12166     <div class="entry">
12167       <div class="title">
12168         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html">When web browser developers make a video player...</a>
12169       </div>
12170       <div class="date">
12171         17th January 2009
12172       </div>
12173       <div class="body">
12174         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
12175 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
12176 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
12177 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
12178 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
12179 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
12180 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
12181 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
12182 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
12183 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
12184 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
12185 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
12186 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
12187 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
12188
12189 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
12190 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
12191 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
12192 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
12193 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
12194 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
12195 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
12196 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
12197 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
12198 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
12199 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
12200 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
12201 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
12202 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
12203 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
12204 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
12205 playing when the download is done.</p>
12206
12207 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
12208 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
12209 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
12210 too.</p>
12211
12212 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
12213 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
12214 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
12215 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
12216
12217       </div>
12218       <div class="tags">
12219
12220
12221         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</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>.
12222
12223
12224       </div>
12225     </div>
12226     <div class="padding"></div>
12227
12228     <div class="entry">
12229       <div class="title">
12230         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
12231       </div>
12232       <div class="date">
12233         28th December 2008
12234       </div>
12235       <div class="body">
12236         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
12237 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
12238 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
12239 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
12240 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
12241 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
12242 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
12243 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
12244 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
12245 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
12246 source, sink and mixer applications and
12247 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
12248 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
12249 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
12250 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
12251 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
12252 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
12253 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
12254 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
12255 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
12256
12257 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
12258 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
12259 larger stick as well.</p>
12260
12261       </div>
12262       <div class="tags">
12263
12264
12265         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
12266
12267
12268       </div>
12269     </div>
12270     <div class="padding"></div>
12271
12272     <div class="entry">
12273       <div class="title">
12274         <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>
12275       </div>
12276       <div class="date">
12277          7th December 2008
12278       </div>
12279       <div class="body">
12280         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
12281 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
12282 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
12283 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
12284 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
12285 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
12286 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
12287 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
12288
12289 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
12290 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
12291 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
12292 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
12293 of these cards.</p>
12294
12295       </div>
12296       <div class="tags">
12297
12298
12299         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>.
12300
12301
12302       </div>
12303     </div>
12304     <div class="padding"></div>
12305
12306     <div class="entry">
12307       <div class="title">
12308         <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>
12309       </div>
12310       <div class="date">
12311         25th November 2008
12312       </div>
12313       <div class="body">
12314         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
12315 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
12316 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
12317 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
12318 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
12319 notes are available on
12320 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
12321 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
12322 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
12323 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
12324 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
12325 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
12326 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
12327 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
12328 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
12329
12330 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12331 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
12332
12333       </div>
12334       <div class="tags">
12335
12336
12337         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>.
12338
12339
12340       </div>
12341     </div>
12342     <div class="padding"></div>
12343
12344     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="english.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
12345     <div id="sidebar">
12346
12347
12348
12349 <h2>Archive</h2>
12350 <ul>
12351
12352 <li>2012
12353 <ul>
12354
12355 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12356
12357 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
12358
12359 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
12360
12361 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
12362
12363 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
12364
12365 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
12366
12367 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
12368
12369 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12370
12371 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
12372
12373 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
12374
12375 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
12376
12377 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12378
12379 </ul></li>
12380
12381 <li>2011
12382 <ul>
12383
12384 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
12385
12386 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12387
12388 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
12389
12390 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12391
12392 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12393
12394 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12395
12396 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12397
12398 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12399
12400 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
12401
12402 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12403
12404 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12405
12406 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
12407
12408 </ul></li>
12409
12410 <li>2010
12411 <ul>
12412
12413 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12414
12415 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
12416
12417 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12418
12419 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
12420
12421 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12422
12423 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
12424
12425 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
12426
12427 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
12428
12429 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
12430
12431 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12432
12433 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
12434
12435 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
12436
12437 </ul></li>
12438
12439 <li>2009
12440 <ul>
12441
12442 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
12443
12444 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
12445
12446 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
12447
12448 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
12449
12450 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12451
12452 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
12453
12454 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
12455
12456 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12457
12458 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
12459
12460 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12461
12462 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12463
12464 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12465
12466 </ul></li>
12467
12468 <li>2008
12469 <ul>
12470
12471 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
12472
12473 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12474
12475 </ul></li>
12476
12477 </ul>
12478
12479
12480
12481 <h2>Tags</h2>
12482 <ul>
12483
12484  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
12485
12486  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
12487
12488  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
12489
12490  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (3)</a></li>
12491
12492  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (3)</a></li>
12493
12494  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
12495
12496  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
12497
12498  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (57)</a></li>
12499
12500  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (117)</a></li>
12501
12502  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
12503
12504  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (7)</a></li>
12505
12506  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
12507
12508  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (162)</a></li>
12509
12510  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
12511
12512  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
12513
12514  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (9)</a></li>
12515
12516  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (9)</a></li>
12517
12518  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (32)</a></li>
12519
12520  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (17)</a></li>
12521
12522  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
12523
12524  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (5)</a></li>
12525
12526  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
12527
12528  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
12529
12530  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (217)</a></li>
12531
12532  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (148)</a></li>
12533
12534  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (6)</a></li>
12535
12536  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
12537
12538  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (39)</a></li>
12539
12540  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (60)</a></li>
12541
12542  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
12543
12544  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
12545
12546  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
12547
12548  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
12549
12550  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
12551
12552  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
12553
12554  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
12555
12556  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (28)</a></li>
12557
12558  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
12559
12560  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
12561
12562  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (39)</a></li>
12563
12564  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
12565
12566  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (5)</a></li>
12567
12568  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (12)</a></li>
12569
12570  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
12571
12572  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
12573
12574  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (35)</a></li>
12575
12576  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
12577
12578  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
12579
12580 </ul>
12581
12582
12583     </div>
12584     <p style="text-align: right">
12585  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
12586 </p>
12587
12588   </body>
12589 </html>