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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          5th July 2015
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
  32 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
  33 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
  34 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
  35 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
  36 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
  37 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
  38 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
  39 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
  40 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
  41 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
  42
  43 <p>One tip I got was to use the
  44 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
  45 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
  46 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
  47 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
  48 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
  49 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
  50
  51 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
  52 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
  53 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
  54 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
  55 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
  56 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
  57 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
  58 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
  59 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
  60 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
  61 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
  62 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
  63 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
  64 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
  65 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
  66
  67 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
  68 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
  69 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
  70 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
  71
  72 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
  73 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
  74
  75 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
  76 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
  77 different
  78 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
  79 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
  80
  81       </div>
  82       <div class="tags">
  83
  84
  85         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>.
  86
  87
  88       </div>
  89     </div>
  90     <div class="padding"></div>
  91
  92     <div class="entry">
  93       <div class="title">
  94         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
  95       </div>
  96       <div class="date">
  97          3rd July 2015
  98       </div>
  99       <div class="body">
 100         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
 101 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
 102 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
 103 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
 104 flickering.</p>
 105
 106 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
 107 still as
 108 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
 109 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
 110 good help from
 111 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
 112 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
 113 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
 114 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
 115 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
 116 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
 117 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
 118 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
 119 deteriorated since X41.</p>
 120
 121 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
 122 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
 123 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
 124 have suggestions.</p>
 125
 126       </div>
 127       <div class="tags">
 128
 129
 130         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>.
 131
 132
 133       </div>
 134     </div>
 135     <div class="padding"></div>
 136
 137     <div class="entry">
 138       <div class="title">
 139         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
 140       </div>
 141       <div class="date">
 142         22nd November 2014
 143       </div>
 144       <div class="body">
 145         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
 146 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
 147 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
 148 courtesy of
 149 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
 150 Schubert</a> and
 151 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
 152 McVittie</a>.
 153
 154 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
 155 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
 156 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
 157 you upgrade:</p>
 158
 159 <p><blockquote><pre>
 160 Package: systemd-sysv
 161 Pin: release o=Debian
 162 Pin-Priority: -1
 163 </pre></blockquote><p>
 164
 165 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
 166 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
 167 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
 168 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
 169 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
 170
 171 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
 172 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
 173 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
 174 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
 175 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
 176 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
 177
 178 <p><blockquote><pre>
 179 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
 180 </pre></blockquote><p>
 181
 182 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
 183
 184 <p><blockquote><pre>
 185 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
 186 </pre></blockquote><p>
 187
 188 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
 189 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
 190
 191 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
 192 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
 193 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
 194 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
 195 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
 196 Jessie is released.</p>
 197
 198 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
 199 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
 200 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
 201 line.</p>
 202
 203       </div>
 204       <div class="tags">
 205
 206
 207         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>.
 208
 209
 210       </div>
 211     </div>
 212     <div class="padding"></div>
 213
 214     <div class="entry">
 215       <div class="title">
 216         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
 217       </div>
 218       <div class="date">
 219         10th November 2014
 220       </div>
 221       <div class="body">
 222         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
 223 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
 224 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
 225
 226 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
 227 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
 228 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
 229 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
 230 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
 231 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
 232 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
 233 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
 234 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
 235 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
 236 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
 237 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
 238 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
 239 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
 240 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
 241
 242 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
 243 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
 244 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
 245 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
 246 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
 247 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
 248 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
 249 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
 250 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
 251 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
 252 were fairly easy, and
 253 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
 254 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
 255 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
 256 useful approach.</p>
 257
 258 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
 259 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
 260 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
 261 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
 262 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
 263 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
 264 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
 265 this:</p>
 266
 267 <p><blockquote><pre>
 268 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
 269   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
 270 </pre></blockquote></p>
 271
 272 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
 273 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
 274
 275 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
 276 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
 277 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
 278 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
 279 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
 280 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
 281 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
 282 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
 283 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
 284 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
 285 system.</p>
 286
 287 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
 288 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
 289 SMTorP. :)</p>
 290
 291       </div>
 292       <div class="tags">
 293
 294
 295         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 296
 297
 298       </div>
 299     </div>
 300     <div class="padding"></div>
 301
 302     <div class="entry">
 303       <div class="title">
 304         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
 305       </div>
 306       <div class="date">
 307         22nd October 2014
 308       </div>
 309       <div class="body">
 310         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
 311 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
 312 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
 313 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
 314 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
 315 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
 316 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
 317 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
 318 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
 319 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
 320 lists I recently took over:</p>
 321
 322 <p><blockquote><pre>
 323 % time listadmin xiph
 324 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 325 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
 326
 327 real    0m1.709s
 328 user    0m0.232s
 329 sys     0m0.012s
 330 %
 331 </pre></blockquote></p>
 332
 333 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
 334 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
 335 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
 336 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
 337 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
 338 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
 339 program.</p>
 340
 341 <p>If you install
 342 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
 343 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
 344 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
 345
 346 <p><blockquote><pre>
 347 username username@example.org
 348 spamlevel 23
 349 default discard
 350 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
 351
 352 password secret
 353 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
 354 mailman-list@lists.example.com
 355
 356 password hidden
 357 other-list@otherserver.example.org
 358 </pre></blockquote></p>
 359
 360 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
 361 learn the details.</p>
 362
 363 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
 364 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
 365 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
 366 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
 367
 368 <p><blockquote><pre>
 369 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
 370 </pre></blockquote></p>
 371
 372 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
 373 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
 374 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
 375 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
 376 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
 377 email.</p>
 378
 379 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
 380 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
 381 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
 382 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
 383 software.</p>
 384
 385 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 386 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 387 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 388
 389 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
 390 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
 391 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
 392 sure why.</p>
 393
 394       </div>
 395       <div class="tags">
 396
 397
 398         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>.
 399
 400
 401       </div>
 402     </div>
 403     <div class="padding"></div>
 404
 405     <div class="entry">
 406       <div class="title">
 407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
 408       </div>
 409       <div class="date">
 410         17th October 2014
 411       </div>
 412       <div class="body">
 413         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
 414 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
 415 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
 416 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
 417 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
 418 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
 419 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
 420
 421 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
 422 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
 423 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
 424 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
 425 of this story.)</p>
 426
 427 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
 428 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
 429 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
 430 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
 431 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
 432 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
 433 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
 434 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
 435 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
 436 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
 437
 438 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
 439 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
 440 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
 441 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
 442
 443 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
 444 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
 445
 446 <p><blockquote><pre>
 447 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
 448 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
 449 </pre></blockquote></p>
 450
 451 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
 452 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
 453 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
 454 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
 455 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
 456 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
 457 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
 458 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
 459
 460 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
 461 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
 462
 463 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
 464 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
 465 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
 466 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
 467 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
 468
 469 <p><blockquote><pre>
 470 Task: isenkram-packages
 471 Section: hardware
 472 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 473  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 474  proposed.
 475 Test-new-install: show show
 476 Relevance: 8
 477 Packages: for-current-hardware
 478
 479 Task: isenkram-firmware
 480 Section: hardware
 481 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 482  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
 483  packages are proposed.
 484 Test-new-install: mark show
 485 Relevance: 8
 486 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
 487 </pre></blockquote></p>
 488
 489 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
 490 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
 491 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
 492 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
 493 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
 494
 495 <p><blockquote><pre>
 496 #!/bin/sh
 497 #
 498 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
 499 export PATH
 500 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 501 </pre></blockquote></p>
 502
 503 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
 504 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
 505
 506 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
 507 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
 508 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
 509 install.</p>
 510
 511 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
 512 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
 513 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
 514
 515       </div>
 516       <div class="tags">
 517
 518
 519         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
 520
 521
 522       </div>
 523     </div>
 524     <div class="padding"></div>
 525
 526     <div class="entry">
 527       <div class="title">
 528         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
 529       </div>
 530       <div class="date">
 531          4th October 2014
 532       </div>
 533       <div class="body">
 534         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
 535 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
 536 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
 537 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
 538
 539 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
 540
 541 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
 542 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
 543 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
 544
 545       </div>
 546       <div class="tags">
 547
 548
 549         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>.
 550
 551
 552       </div>
 553     </div>
 554     <div class="padding"></div>
 555
 556     <div class="entry">
 557       <div class="title">
 558         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
 559       </div>
 560       <div class="date">
 561          4th October 2014
 562       </div>
 563       <div class="body">
 564         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
 565 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
 566 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
 567 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
 568 Dibb.</p>
 569
 570 <p>I just wrapped up
 571 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
 572 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
 573 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
 574 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
 575 0.17.</p>
 576
 577 <ul>
 578
 579  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
 580  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
 581    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
 582  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
 583  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
 584  <li>Fix include orders</li>
 585  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
 586  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
 587  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
 588    the palette size is the same.</li>
 589  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
 590  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
 591  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
 592  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
 593    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
 594
 595 </ul>
 596
 597 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
 598 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
 599 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
 600
 601       </div>
 602       <div class="tags">
 603
 604
 605         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
 606
 607
 608       </div>
 609     </div>
 610     <div class="padding"></div>
 611
 612     <div class="entry">
 613       <div class="title">
 614         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
 615       </div>
 616       <div class="date">
 617         26th September 2014
 618       </div>
 619       <div class="body">
 620         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 621 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
 622 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
 623 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
 624 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
 625 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
 626 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
 627 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
 628 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
 629 future.  The
 630 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
 631 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
 632 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
 633 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
 634 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
 635
 636 <p>First, download the test ISO via
 637 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
 638 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
 639 or rsync (use
 640 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
 641 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
 642 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
 643 install with some tweaking.</p>
 644
 645 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
 646 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
 647
 648 <p><blockquote><pre>
 649 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
 650 </pre></blockquote></p>
 651
 652 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
 653 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
 654 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
 655 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
 656
 657 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
 658 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
 659 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
 660 your need.</p>
 661
 662 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
 663 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
 664 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
 665 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
 666 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
 667 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
 668 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
 669 days.</p>
 670
 671 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
 672 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
 673 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
 674 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
 675 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
 676 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
 677 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
 678 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
 679 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
 680
 681 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
 682 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
 683 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
 684
 685       </div>
 686       <div class="tags">
 687
 688
 689         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>.
 690
 691
 692       </div>
 693     </div>
 694     <div class="padding"></div>
 695
 696     <div class="entry">
 697       <div class="title">
 698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
 699       </div>
 700       <div class="date">
 701         25th September 2014
 702       </div>
 703       <div class="body">
 704         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
 705 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
 706 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
 707 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
 708 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
 709 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
 710 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
 711 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
 712 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
 713 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
 714 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
 715 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
 716 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
 717
 718 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
 719 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
 720 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
 721 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
 722 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
 723 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
 724 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
 725 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
 726 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
 727 list</a>. :)</p>
 728
 729       </div>
 730       <div class="tags">
 731
 732
 733         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
 734
 735
 736       </div>
 737     </div>
 738     <div class="padding"></div>
 739
 740     <div class="entry">
 741       <div class="title">
 742         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
 743       </div>
 744       <div class="date">
 745         16th September 2014
 746       </div>
 747       <div class="body">
 748         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
 749 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
 750 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
 751 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
 752 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
 753 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
 754 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
 755 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
 756 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
 757 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
 758 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
 759 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
 760 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
 761 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
 762
 763 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
 764 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
 765 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
 766 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
 767 depend on the small and clever package
 768 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
 769 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
 770 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
 771 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
 772 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
 773 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
 774 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
 775 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
 776 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
 777 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
 778 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
 779
 780 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
 781 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
 782 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
 783 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
 784 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
 785 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
 786 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
 787 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
 788 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
 789 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
 790 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
 791 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
 792 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
 793 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
 794 dialog.</p>
 795
 796 <p><table>
 797
 798 <tr>
 799 <th>Machine/setup</th>
 800 <th>Original tasksel</th>
 801 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
 802 <th>Reduction</th>
 803 </tr>
 804
 805 <tr>
 806 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
 807 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
 808 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
 809 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
 810 </tr>
 811
 812 <tr>
 813 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
 814 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
 815 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
 816 <td>23 min 40%</td>
 817 </tr>
 818
 819 <tr>
 820 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
 821 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
 822 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
 823 <td>11 min 50%</td>
 824 </tr>
 825
 826 <tr>
 827 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
 828 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
 829 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
 830 <td>2 min 33%</td>
 831 </tr>
 832
 833 <tr>
 834 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
 835 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
 836 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
 837 <td>4 min 21%</td>
 838 </tr>
 839
 840 </table></p>
 841
 842 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
 843 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
 844 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
 845 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
 846 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
 847 installed.</p>
 848
 849 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
 850 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
 851 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
 852 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
 853 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
 854 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
 855 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
 856 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
 857 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
 858 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
 859 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
 860 for the entire installation.</p>
 861
 862 <p>I've implemented this in the
 863 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
 864 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
 865 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
 866 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
 867 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
 868
 869 <p><blockquote><pre>
 870 #!/bin/sh
 871 set -e
 872 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 873 info() {
 874     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
 875 }
 876 error() {
 877     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
 878 }
 879 override_install() {
 880     apt-install eatmydata || true
 881     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
 882         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 883             file=/usr/bin/$bin
 884             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
 885             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
 886                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
 887                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
 888                     > /target$file.edu
 889                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
 890                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 891                     --rename --quiet --add $file
 892                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
 893             else
 894                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
 895             fi
 896         done
 897     else
 898         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
 899     fi
 900 }
 901
 902 override_install
 903 </pre></blockquote></p>
 904
 905 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
 906 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
 907
 908 <p><blockquote><pre>
 909 #! /bin/sh -e
 910 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 911 error() {
 912     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
 913 }
 914 remove_install_override() {
 915     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 916         file=/usr/bin/$bin
 917         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
 918             rm /target$file
 919             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 920                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
 921             rm /target$file.edu
 922         else
 923             error "Missing divert for $file."
 924         fi
 925     done
 926     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
 927 }
 928
 929 remove_install_override
 930 </pre></blockquote></p>
 931
 932 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
 933 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
 934 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
 935
 936 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
 937 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
 938 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
 939 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
 940 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
 941 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
 942 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
 943 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
 944 everyone.</p>
 945
 946 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
 947 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
 948 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
 949 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
 950
 951 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
 952 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
 953 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
 954 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
 955 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
 956
 957 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
 958 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
 959 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
 960 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
 961 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
 962
 963       </div>
 964       <div class="tags">
 965
 966
 967         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>.
 968
 969
 970       </div>
 971     </div>
 972     <div class="padding"></div>
 973
 974     <div class="entry">
 975       <div class="title">
 976         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
 977       </div>
 978       <div class="date">
 979         10th September 2014
 980       </div>
 981       <div class="body">
 982         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
 983 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
 984 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
 985 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
 986 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
 987 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
 988 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
 989 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
 990 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
 991 those problems are gone now.</p>
 992
 993 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
 994 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
 995 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
 996 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
 997 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
 998
 999 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
1000 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
1001 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
1002
1003 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
1004 line:</p>
1005
1006 <p><blockquote><pre>
1007 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
1008 </pre></blockquote></p>
1009
1010 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
1011 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
1012 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
1013 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
1014
1015 <p><blockquote><pre>
1016 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
1017 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1018 %
1019 </pre></blockquote></p>
1020
1021 <p>Now if only
1022 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
1023 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
1024 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
1025 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
1026 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
1027 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
1028 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
1029 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
1030 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
1031
1032       </div>
1033       <div class="tags">
1034
1035
1036         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1037
1038
1039       </div>
1040     </div>
1041     <div class="padding"></div>
1042
1043     <div class="entry">
1044       <div class="title">
1045         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
1046       </div>
1047       <div class="date">
1048         17th June 2014
1049       </div>
1050       <div class="body">
1051         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1052 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
1053 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
1054 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
1055 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
1056
1057 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
1058 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
1059 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
1060 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
1061 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
1062 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
1063 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
1064 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
1065 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
1066 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
1067 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
1068 goals.</p>
1069
1070 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
1071 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
1072 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
1073 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
1074 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
1075 chapters together into one large web page (aka
1076 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
1077 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
1078 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
1079 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
1080 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
1081 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
1082 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
1083 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
1084 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
1085 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
1086 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
1087 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
1088 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
1089 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
1090 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
1091 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
1092 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
1093 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
1094
1095 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
1096 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
1097 track the English original.  For this we use the
1098 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
1099 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
1100 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
1101 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
1102 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
1103 files), which the translations update with the native language
1104 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
1105 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
1106 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
1107 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
1108 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
1109 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
1110 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
1111 of the documentation.</p>
1112
1113 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
1114 recommend using
1115 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
1116 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
1117 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
1118 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
1119 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
1120 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
1121 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
1122 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
1123
1124 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
1125 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
1126 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
1127 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
1128 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
1129 translated images by storing translated versions in
1130 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
1131 package maintainers know more.</p>
1132
1133 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
1134 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
1135 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
1136 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
1137 PDF version</a> or the
1138 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
1139 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
1140 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
1141
1142 <p>To learn more, check out
1143 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
1144 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
1145 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
1146 manual on the wiki</a> and
1147 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
1148 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
1149
1150       </div>
1151       <div class="tags">
1152
1153
1154         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1155
1156
1157       </div>
1158     </div>
1159     <div class="padding"></div>
1160
1161     <div class="entry">
1162       <div class="title">
1163         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
1164       </div>
1165       <div class="date">
1166         23rd April 2014
1167       </div>
1168       <div class="body">
1169         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
1170 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
1171 So I implemented one, using
1172 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
1173 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
1174 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
1175 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
1176 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
1177 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
1178
1179 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
1180 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
1181 packages to install.  The first part is in
1182 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
1183 this:</p>
1184
1185 <p><blockquote><pre>
1186 Task: isenkram
1187 Section: hardware
1188 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1189  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1190  proposed.
1191 Test-new-install: mark show
1192 Relevance: 8
1193 Packages: for-current-hardware
1194 </pre></blockquote></p>
1195
1196 <p>The second part is in
1197 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
1198 this:</p>
1199
1200 <p><blockquote><pre>
1201 #!/bin/sh
1202 #
1203 (
1204     isenkram-lookup
1205     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1206 ) | sort -u
1207 </pre></blockquote></p>
1208
1209 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
1210 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
1211 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
1212 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
1213 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
1214 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
1215
1216 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
1217 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
1218 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
1219 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
1220 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
1221 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
1222 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
1223 the python-apt code (bug
1224 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
1225 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
1226 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
1227 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
1228 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
1229 unstable today.</p>
1230
1231 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
1232 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
1233 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
1234 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
1235 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
1236 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
1237 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
1238 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
1239 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
1240
1241 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
1242 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
1243 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
1244 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
1245 package.  See also
1246 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
1247 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
1248 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
1249 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
1250
1251       </div>
1252       <div class="tags">
1253
1254
1255         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1256
1257
1258       </div>
1259     </div>
1260     <div class="padding"></div>
1261
1262     <div class="entry">
1263       <div class="title">
1264         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
1265       </div>
1266       <div class="date">
1267         15th April 2014
1268       </div>
1269       <div class="body">
1270         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1271 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
1272 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
1273 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
1274 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
1275 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
1276
1277 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
1278 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
1279 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
1280 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
1281 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
1282 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
1283 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
1284
1285 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
1286 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
1287 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
1288 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
1289 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
1290 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
1291 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
1292 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
1293 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
1294 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
1295 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
1296 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
1297
1298 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
1299 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
1300 become root:</p>
1301
1302 <p><pre>
1303 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1304   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1305   u-boot-tools
1306 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1307   freedom-maker
1308 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1309 </pre></p>
1310
1311 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
1312 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
1313 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
1314 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
1315 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
1316 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
1317 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
1318 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
1319
1320 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
1321 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
1322 the preseed values:</p>
1323
1324 <p><pre>
1325 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
1326 </pre></p>
1327
1328 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
1329 it still work.</p>
1330
1331 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
1332 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
1333 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
1334 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
1335 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
1336 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
1337 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
1338
1339 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
1340 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
1341 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
1342 irc.debian.org)</a> and
1343 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1344 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1345
1346       </div>
1347       <div class="tags">
1348
1349
1350         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1351
1352
1353       </div>
1354     </div>
1355     <div class="padding"></div>
1356
1357     <div class="entry">
1358       <div class="title">
1359         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
1360       </div>
1361       <div class="date">
1362          9th April 2014
1363       </div>
1364       <div class="body">
1365         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
1366 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
1367 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
1368 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
1369 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
1370 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
1371 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
1372 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
1373 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
1374 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
1375 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
1376 have looked at a system called
1377 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
1378 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
1379
1380 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
1381 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
1382 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
1383 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
1384 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
1385 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
1386 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
1387 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
1388 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
1389 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
1390 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
1391 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
1392 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
1393
1394 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
1395 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
1396 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
1397 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
1398 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
1399 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
1400 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
1401 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
1402 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
1403 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
1404 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
1405 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
1406 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
1407 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
1408 account.</p>
1409
1410 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
1411 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
1412 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
1413 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
1414 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
1415 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
1416 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
1417
1418 <p><blockquote><pre>
1419 [s3c]
1420 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1421 backend-login: API-login
1422 backend-password: API-password
1423 fs-passphrase: local-password
1424 </pre></blockquote></p>
1425
1426 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
1427 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
1428 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
1429 details and password to create it:</p>
1430
1431 <p><blockquote><pre>
1432 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
1433 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1434   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1435 Enter backend login:
1436 Enter backend password:
1437 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
1438 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
1439 Enter encryption password:
1440 Confirm encryption password:
1441 Generating random encryption key...
1442 Creating metadata tables...
1443 Dumping metadata...
1444 ..objects..
1445 ..blocks..
1446 ..inodes..
1447 ..inode_blocks..
1448 ..symlink_targets..
1449 ..names..
1450 ..contents..
1451 ..ext_attributes..
1452 Compressing and uploading metadata...
1453 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
1454 # </pre></blockquote></p>
1455
1456 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
1457
1458 <p><blockquote><pre>
1459 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1460   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
1461 Using 4 upload threads.
1462 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
1463 Reading metadata...
1464 ..objects..
1465 ..blocks..
1466 ..inodes..
1467 ..inode_blocks..
1468 ..symlink_targets..
1469 ..names..
1470 ..contents..
1471 ..ext_attributes..
1472 Mounting filesystem...
1473 # df -h /s3ql
1474 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
1475 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
1476 #
1477 </pre></blockquote></p>
1478
1479 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
1480 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
1481 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
1482 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
1483 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
1484 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
1485
1486 <p><blockquote><pre>
1487 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
1488 #
1489 </pre></blockquote></p>
1490
1491 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
1492 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
1493 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
1494 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
1495 file system:</p>
1496
1497 <p><blockquote><pre>
1498 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1499 Using cached metadata.
1500 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
1501 Checking DB integrity...
1502 Creating temporary extra indices...
1503 Checking lost+found...
1504 Checking cached objects...
1505 Checking names (refcounts)...
1506 Checking contents (names)...
1507 Checking contents (inodes)...
1508 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
1509 Checking objects (reference counts)...
1510 Checking objects (backend)...
1511 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
1512 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
1513 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
1514 Checking objects (sizes)...
1515 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
1516 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
1517 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
1518 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
1519 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
1520 Checking inodes (sizes)...
1521 Checking extended attributes (names)...
1522 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
1523 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
1524 Checking directory reachability...
1525 Checking unix conventions...
1526 Checking referential integrity...
1527 Dropping temporary indices...
1528 Backing up old metadata...
1529 Dumping metadata...
1530 ..objects..
1531 ..blocks..
1532 ..inodes..
1533 ..inode_blocks..
1534 ..symlink_targets..
1535 ..names..
1536 ..contents..
1537 ..ext_attributes..
1538 Compressing and uploading metadata...
1539 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
1540 #
1541 </pre></blockquote></p>
1542
1543 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
1544 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
1545 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
1546 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
1547 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
1548 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
1549 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
1550 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
1551 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
1552 working set.</p>
1553
1554 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
1555 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
1556 busy:</p>
1557
1558 <p><blockquote><pre>
1559 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1560   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
1561 Using 8 upload threads.
1562 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
1563 #
1564 </pre></blockquote></p>
1565
1566 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
1567 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
1568 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
1569 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
1570 s3qlctrl:
1571
1572 <p><blockquote><pre>
1573 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
1574 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
1575 #
1576 </pre></blockquote></p>
1577
1578 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
1579 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
1580 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
1581 a report:</p>
1582
1583 <p><blockquote><pre>
1584 # s3qlstat /s3ql
1585 Directory entries:    9141
1586 Inodes:               9143
1587 Data blocks:          8851
1588 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
1589 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
1590 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
1591 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
1592 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
1593 #
1594 </pre></blockquote></p>
1595
1596 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
1597 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
1598 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
1599 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
1600 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
1601 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
1602 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
1603 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
1604 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
1605 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
1606 best.</p>
1607
1608 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
1609 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
1610 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
1611 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
1612 poster is titled
1613 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
1614 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
1615 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
1616 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
1617 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
1618
1619 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
1620 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
1621 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
1622 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
1623 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
1624 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
1625 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
1626 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
1627
1628 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
1629 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
1630 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
1631 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
1632 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
1633 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
1634 only read from it.</p>
1635
1636 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1637 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1638 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1639
1640       </div>
1641       <div class="tags">
1642
1643
1644         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1645
1646
1647       </div>
1648     </div>
1649     <div class="padding"></div>
1650
1651     <div class="entry">
1652       <div class="title">
1653         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
1654       </div>
1655       <div class="date">
1656         14th March 2014
1657       </div>
1658       <div class="body">
1659         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1660 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
1661 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
1662 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
1663 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
1664 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
1665 release (0.2).</p>
1666
1667 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
1668 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
1669 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
1670 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
1671 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
1672 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
1673 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
1674 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
1675 and build using
1676 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
1677 with a user with sudo access to become root:
1678
1679 <pre>
1680 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1681   freedom-maker
1682 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1683   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1684   u-boot-tools
1685 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1686 </pre>
1687
1688 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
1689 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
1690 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
1691 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
1692 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
1693 kpartx call.</p>
1694
1695 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
1696 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
1697 the preseed values:</p>
1698
1699 <pre>
1700 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
1701 </pre>
1702
1703 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
1704 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
1705 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
1706 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
1707 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
1708 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
1709
1710 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
1711 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
1712 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
1713 irc.debian.org)</a> and
1714 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1715 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1716
1717       </div>
1718       <div class="tags">
1719
1720
1721         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1722
1723
1724       </div>
1725     </div>
1726     <div class="padding"></div>
1727
1728     <div class="entry">
1729       <div class="title">
1730         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
1731       </div>
1732       <div class="date">
1733         22nd February 2014
1734       </div>
1735       <div class="body">
1736         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
1737 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
1738 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
1739 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
1740 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
1741 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
1742 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
1743 proper home since then.</p>
1744
1745 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
1746 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
1747 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
1748 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
1749 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
1750
1751 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
1752 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
1753 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
1754 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
1755 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
1756 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
1757 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
1758 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
1759 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
1760
1761       </div>
1762       <div class="tags">
1763
1764
1765         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>.
1766
1767
1768       </div>
1769     </div>
1770     <div class="padding"></div>
1771
1772     <div class="entry">
1773       <div class="title">
1774         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
1775       </div>
1776       <div class="date">
1777          3rd February 2014
1778       </div>
1779       <div class="body">
1780         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
1781 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
1782 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
1783 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
1784 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
1785 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
1786 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
1787 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
1788 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
1789
1790 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
1791 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
1792 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
1793 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
1794 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
1795 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
1796
1797 <p><blockquote><pre>
1798 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
1799 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
1800 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
1801 dhclient /dev/eth0
1802 </pre></blockquote></p>
1803
1804 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
1805 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
1806 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
1807
1808 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
1809 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
1810 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
1811 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
1812 side.</p>
1813
1814 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
1815 stuff:</p>
1816
1817 <p><blockquote><pre>
1818 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1819 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
1820 EOF
1821 apt-get update
1822 apt-get dist-upgrade
1823 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
1824     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
1825 update-alternatives --config runsystem
1826 </pre></blockquote></p>
1827
1828 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
1829 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
1830 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
1831 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
1832 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
1833 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
1834 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
1835 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
1836 ssh instead.
1837
1838 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
1839 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
1840 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
1841 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
1842 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
1843 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
1844
1845 <p><blockquote><pre>
1846 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1847 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
1848 EOF
1849 </pre></blockquote></p>
1850
1851 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
1852 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
1853 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
1854 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
1855
1856 <p><blockquote><pre>
1857 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
1858 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
1859 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
1860 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
1861 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
1862 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
1863 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
1864 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
1865 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
1866 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
1867 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
1868 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
1869 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
1870 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
1871 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
1872 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
1873 #
1874 </pre></blockquote></p>
1875
1876 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
1877 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
1878 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
1879 command line stuff.<p>
1880
1881       </div>
1882       <div class="tags">
1883
1884
1885         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>.
1886
1887
1888       </div>
1889     </div>
1890     <div class="padding"></div>
1891
1892     <div class="entry">
1893       <div class="title">
1894         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
1895       </div>
1896       <div class="date">
1897         14th January 2014
1898       </div>
1899       <div class="body">
1900         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
1901 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
1902 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
1903 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
1904 the source.  The company behind it provide
1905 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
1906 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
1907 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
1908 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
1909 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
1910 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
1911 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
1912 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
1913 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
1914 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
1915 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
1916 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
1917 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
1918 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
1919 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
1920 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
1921 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
1922 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
1923 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
1924
1925 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
1926
1927 <ul>
1928
1929   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
1930   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
1931   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
1932
1933 </ul>
1934
1935 <p>You can
1936 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
1937 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
1938 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
1939 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
1940 include a test suite check.</p>
1941
1942       </div>
1943       <div class="tags">
1944
1945
1946         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1947
1948
1949       </div>
1950     </div>
1951     <div class="padding"></div>
1952
1953     <div class="entry">
1954       <div class="title">
1955         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
1956       </div>
1957       <div class="date">
1958         24th November 2013
1959       </div>
1960       <div class="body">
1961         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
1962 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
1963 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
1964 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
1965 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
1966 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
1967 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
1968 is working on.  I checked the
1969 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
1970 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
1971 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
1972 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
1973 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
1974 These are the release notes:</p>
1975
1976 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
1977
1978 <ul>
1979
1980   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
1981    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
1982    up.</li>
1983
1984   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
1985
1986   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
1987    Matthias Klose.</li>
1988
1989   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
1990    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
1991
1992   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
1993    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
1994    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
1995
1996 </ul>
1997
1998 <p>You can
1999 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2000 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2001 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2002 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2003 include a testsuite check.</p>
2004
2005       </div>
2006       <div class="tags">
2007
2008
2009         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2010
2011
2012       </div>
2013     </div>
2014     <div class="padding"></div>
2015
2016     <div class="entry">
2017       <div class="title">
2018         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
2019       </div>
2020       <div class="date">
2021          2nd November 2013
2022       </div>
2023       <div class="body">
2024         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
2025 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
2026 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
2027 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
2028 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
2029
2030 <p><pre>
2031 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
2032 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
2033 # Provides:          rsyslog
2034 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
2035 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
2036 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
2037 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
2038 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
2039 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
2040 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
2041 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
2042 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
2043 ### END INIT INFO
2044 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
2045 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
2046 </pre></p>
2047
2048 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
2049 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
2050 info/comments.</p>
2051
2052 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
2053 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
2054
2055 <p><pre>
2056 #!/bin/sh
2057
2058 # Define LSB log_* functions.
2059 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
2060 # and status_of_proc is working.
2061 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
2062
2063 #
2064 # Function that starts the daemon/service
2065
2066 #
2067 do_start()
2068 {
2069         # Return
2070         #   0 if daemon has been started
2071         #   1 if daemon was already running
2072         #   2 if daemon could not be started
2073         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
2074                 || return 1
2075         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
2076                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
2077                 || return 2
2078         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
2079         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
2080         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
2081 }
2082
2083 #
2084 # Function that stops the daemon/service
2085 #
2086 do_stop()
2087 {
2088         # Return
2089         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
2090         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
2091         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
2092         #   other if a failure occurred
2093         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2094         RETVAL="$?"
2095         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
2096         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
2097         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
2098         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
2099         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
2100         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
2101         # sleep for some time.
2102         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
2103         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
2104         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
2105         rm -f $PIDFILE
2106         return "$RETVAL"
2107 }
2108
2109 #
2110 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
2111 #
2112 do_reload() {
2113         #
2114         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
2115         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
2116         # then implement that here.
2117         #
2118         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2119         return 0
2120 }
2121
2122 SCRIPTNAME=$1
2123 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
2124 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
2125 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
2126     script="$1"
2127     shift
2128     . $script
2129 else
2130     exit 0
2131 fi
2132
2133 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
2134 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
2135
2136 # Exit if the package is not installed
2137 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
2138
2139 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
2140 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
2141
2142 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
2143 . /lib/init/vars.sh
2144
2145 case "$1" in
2146   start)
2147         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
2148         do_start
2149         case "$?" in
2150                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2151                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2152         esac
2153         ;;
2154   stop)
2155         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
2156         do_stop
2157         case "$?" in
2158                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2159                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2160         esac
2161         ;;
2162   status)
2163         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
2164         ;;
2165   #reload|force-reload)
2166         #
2167         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
2168         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
2169         #
2170         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
2171         #do_reload
2172         #log_end_msg $?
2173         #;;
2174   restart|force-reload)
2175         #
2176         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
2177         # 'force-reload' alias
2178         #
2179         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
2180         do_stop
2181         case "$?" in
2182           0|1)
2183                 do_start
2184                 case "$?" in
2185                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2186                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
2187                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
2188                 esac
2189                 ;;
2190           *)
2191                 # Failed to stop
2192                 log_end_msg 1
2193                 ;;
2194         esac
2195         ;;
2196   *)
2197         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
2198         exit 3
2199         ;;
2200 esac
2201
2202 :
2203 </pre></p>
2204
2205 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
2206 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
2207 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
2208 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
2209
2210 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
2211 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
2212 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
2213 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
2214 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
2215
2216       </div>
2217       <div class="tags">
2218
2219
2220         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>.
2221
2222
2223       </div>
2224     </div>
2225     <div class="padding"></div>
2226
2227     <div class="entry">
2228       <div class="title">
2229         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
2230       </div>
2231       <div class="date">
2232          1st November 2013
2233       </div>
2234       <div class="body">
2235         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
2236 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
2237 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
2238 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
2239 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
2240 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
2241 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
2242 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
2243 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
2244 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
2245 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
2246 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
2247
2248 <p>The source is now available from
2249 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
2250
2251       </div>
2252       <div class="tags">
2253
2254
2255         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>.
2256
2257
2258       </div>
2259     </div>
2260     <div class="padding"></div>
2261
2262     <div class="entry">
2263       <div class="title">
2264         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
2265       </div>
2266       <div class="date">
2267         27th October 2013
2268       </div>
2269       <div class="body">
2270         <p>The
2271 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
2272 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
2273 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
2274 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
2275 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
2276 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
2277 of a plan to simplify the build system for
2278 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
2279 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
2280 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
2281 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
2282 Raspberry Pi.</p>
2283
2284 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
2285 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
2286 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
2287 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
2288 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
2289 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
2290 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
2291 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
2292 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
2293 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
2294 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
2295 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
2296 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
2297 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
2298 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
2299 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
2300 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
2301 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
2302 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
2303 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
2304 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
2305 available from
2306 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
2307 upstream project page</a>.</p>
2308
2309 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
2310 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
2311 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
2312 list:</p>
2313
2314 <p><pre>
2315 #!/bin/sh
2316 set -e # Exit on first error
2317 rootdir="$1"
2318 cd "$rootdir"
2319 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
2320 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
2321 EOF
2322 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
2323 # install a kernel somewhere too.
2324 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
2325     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
2326 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
2327 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
2328 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
2329 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
2330 </pre></p>
2331
2332 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
2333 to build the image:</p>
2334
2335 <pre>
2336 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
2337     --variant minbase \
2338     --arch armel \
2339     --distribution jessie \
2340     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
2341     --image test.img \
2342     --size 600M \
2343     --bootsize 64M \
2344     --boottype vfat \
2345     --log-level debug \
2346     --verbose \
2347     --no-kernel \
2348     --no-extlinux \
2349     --root-password raspberry \
2350     --hostname raspberrypi \
2351     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
2352     --customize `pwd`/customize \
2353     --package netbase \
2354     --package git-core \
2355     --package binutils \
2356     --package ca-certificates \
2357     --package wget \
2358     --package kmod
2359 </pre></p>
2360
2361 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
2362 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
2363 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
2364 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
2365 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
2366 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
2367 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
2368
2369 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
2370 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
2371 build dependency list.</p>
2372
2373 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
2374 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
2375 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
2376 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
2377
2378       </div>
2379       <div class="tags">
2380
2381
2382         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
2383
2384
2385       </div>
2386     </div>
2387     <div class="padding"></div>
2388
2389     <div class="entry">
2390       <div class="title">
2391         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
2392       </div>
2393       <div class="date">
2394         15th October 2013
2395       </div>
2396       <div class="body">
2397         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
2398 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
2399 these. :)</p>
2400
2401 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
2402 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
2403 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
2404 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
2405 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
2406 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
2407 hope you will to. :)</p>
2408
2409 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
2410 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
2411 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
2412 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
2413 donated.  Are you next?</p>
2414
2415 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
2416 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
2417 statement under the heading
2418 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
2419 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
2420 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
2421 too.</p>
2422
2423       </div>
2424       <div class="tags">
2425
2426
2427         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2428
2429
2430       </div>
2431     </div>
2432     <div class="padding"></div>
2433
2434     <div class="entry">
2435       <div class="title">
2436         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
2437       </div>
2438       <div class="date">
2439         27th September 2013
2440       </div>
2441       <div class="body">
2442         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
2443 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
2444 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
2445 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
2446
2447 <ul>
2448
2449 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
2450 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
2451
2452 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
2453 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2454
2455 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
2456 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
2457 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
2458 (Youtube)</li>
2459
2460 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
2461 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
2462
2463 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
2464 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2465
2466 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
2467 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
2468 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
2469
2470 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
2471 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
2472 (Youtube)</li>
2473
2474 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
2475 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
2476
2477 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
2478 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
2479
2480 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
2481 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
2482 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
2483
2484 </ul>
2485
2486 <p>A larger list is available from
2487 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
2488 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
2489
2490 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
2491 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
2492 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
2493 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
2494 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
2495 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
2496 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
2497 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
2498 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
2499 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2500 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2501
2502       </div>
2503       <div class="tags">
2504
2505
2506         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2507
2508
2509       </div>
2510     </div>
2511     <div class="padding"></div>
2512
2513     <div class="entry">
2514       <div class="title">
2515         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
2516       </div>
2517       <div class="date">
2518         10th September 2013
2519       </div>
2520       <div class="body">
2521         <p>I was introduced to the
2522 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
2523 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
2524 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
2525 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
2526 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
2527 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
2528 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
2529 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
2530
2531 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
2532 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
2533 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
2534 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
2535 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
2536
2537 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
2538 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
2539 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
2540 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
2541 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
2542 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
2543 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
2544 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
2545 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
2546 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
2547 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
2548 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
2549 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
2550 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
2551 missing in Debian).</p>
2552
2553 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
2554 scripts
2555 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
2556 and a administrative web interface
2557 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
2558 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
2559 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
2560 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
2561 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
2562 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
2563 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
2564 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
2565 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
2566 this is really working yet, see
2567 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
2568 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
2569 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
2570 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
2571 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
2572 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
2573 with lots of half baked features.</p>
2574
2575 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
2576 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
2577 at.</p>
2578
2579 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
2580
2581 <ol>
2582
2583 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
2584 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
2585 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
2586 to the Debian installer:<p>
2587 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
2588
2589 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
2590 install on.</li>
2591
2592 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
2593 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
2594
2595 </ol>
2596
2597 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
2598
2599 <ol>
2600
2601 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
2602 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
2603 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
2604 <pre>
2605 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
2606 </pre></li>
2607 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
2608 <pre>
2609 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
2610    apt-key add -
2611 apt-get update
2612 apt-get install freedombox-setup
2613 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
2614 </pre></li>
2615 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
2616
2617 </ol>
2618
2619 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
2620 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
2621 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
2622 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
2623 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
2624
2625 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
2626 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
2627 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
2628 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
2629
2630 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
2631 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
2632 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
2633 irc.debian.org and the
2634 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
2635 mailing list</a>.</p>
2636
2637 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
2638 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
2639 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
2640 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
2641 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
2642 default password is 'secret'.</p>
2643
2644       </div>
2645       <div class="tags">
2646
2647
2648         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
2649
2650
2651       </div>
2652     </div>
2653     <div class="padding"></div>
2654
2655     <div class="entry">
2656       <div class="title">
2657         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
2658       </div>
2659       <div class="date">
2660         18th August 2013
2661       </div>
2662       <div class="body">
2663         <p>Earlier, I reported about
2664 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
2665 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
2666 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
2667 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
2668 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
2669 currently on the disk.</p>
2670
2671 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
2672 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
2673 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
2674 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
2675 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
2676 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
2677 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
2678 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
2679 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
2680 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
2681 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
2682 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
2683 the broken disks.</p>
2684
2685       </div>
2686       <div class="tags">
2687
2688
2689         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>.
2690
2691
2692       </div>
2693     </div>
2694     <div class="padding"></div>
2695
2696     <div class="entry">
2697       <div class="title">
2698         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
2699       </div>
2700       <div class="date">
2701         17th July 2013
2702       </div>
2703       <div class="body">
2704         <p>Today I switched to
2705 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
2706 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
2707 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
2708 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
2709 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
2710 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
2711 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
2712 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
2713 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
2714 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
2715 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
2716 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
2717 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
2718 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
2719 station from now on.</p>
2720
2721 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
2722 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
2723 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
2724 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
2725 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
2726 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
2727 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
2728 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
2729 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
2730 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
2731 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
2732 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
2733
2734 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
2735 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
2736 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
2737 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
2738 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
2739 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
2740 parameters are tuned:</p>
2741
2742 <ul>
2743
2744 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
2745     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
2746
2747 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
2748     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
2749     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
2750
2751 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
2752     systems.</li>
2753
2754 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
2755     /etc/fstab.</li>
2756
2757 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
2758
2759 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
2760     cron.daily).</li>
2761
2762 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
2763     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
2764
2765 </ul>
2766
2767 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
2768 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
2769 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
2770 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
2771 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
2772 from getting the data on the disk (see
2773 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
2774 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
2775 right thing to do.</p>
2776
2777 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
2778 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
2779 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
2780
2781 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
2782 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
2783 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
2784 instead of during my work.</p>
2785
2786 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
2787 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
2788
2789 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
2790 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
2791 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
2792
2793 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
2794 there.</p>
2795
2796 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
2797 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
2798 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
2799 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
2800 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
2801 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
2802 back.</p>
2803
2804       </div>
2805       <div class="tags">
2806
2807
2808         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>.
2809
2810
2811       </div>
2812     </div>
2813     <div class="padding"></div>
2814
2815     <div class="entry">
2816       <div class="title">
2817         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
2818       </div>
2819       <div class="date">
2820         10th July 2013
2821       </div>
2822       <div class="body">
2823         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
2824 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
2825 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
2826 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
2827 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
2828 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
2829 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
2830 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
2831
2832 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
2833 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
2834 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
2835 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
2836 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
2837 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
2838 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
2839 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
2840 lock up when I download a new
2841 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
2842 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
2843 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
2844
2845 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2846 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
2847 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2848 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
2849 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2850 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2851
2852 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2853 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
2854 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2855 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
2856 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2857 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2858
2859 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
2860 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
2861 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
2862 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
2863 exist).</p>
2864
2865       </div>
2866       <div class="tags">
2867
2868
2869         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>.
2870
2871
2872       </div>
2873     </div>
2874     <div class="padding"></div>
2875
2876     <div class="entry">
2877       <div class="title">
2878         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
2879       </div>
2880       <div class="date">
2881          9th July 2013
2882       </div>
2883       <div class="body">
2884         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
2885 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
2886 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
2887 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
2888 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2889 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
2890 Bitraf</a>.</p>
2891
2892 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
2893 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
2894 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
2895 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
2896 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
2897
2898       </div>
2899       <div class="tags">
2900
2901
2902         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>.
2903
2904
2905       </div>
2906     </div>
2907     <div class="padding"></div>
2908
2909     <div class="entry">
2910       <div class="title">
2911         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
2912       </div>
2913       <div class="date">
2914          5th July 2013
2915       </div>
2916       <div class="body">
2917         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
2918 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
2919 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
2920 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
2921 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
2922 ended up picking a
2923 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
2924 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
2925 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
2926 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
2927 on that below.</p>
2928
2929 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
2930 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
2931 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
2932 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
2933 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
2934 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
2935 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
2936 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
2937 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
2938
2939 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
2940 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
2941 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
2942 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
2943 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
2944 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
2945 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
2946
2947 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
2948 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
2949
2950 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
2951 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
2952 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
2953 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
2954 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
2955 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
2956 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
2957 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
2958 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
2959 kernel developers as
2960 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
2961 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
2962 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
2963 Lenovo forums, both for
2964 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
2965 2012-11-10</a> and for
2966 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
2967 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
2968 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
2969 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
2970 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
2971 There is even a
2972 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
2973 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
2974 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
2975
2976 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
2977 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
2978 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
2979 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
2980 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
2981 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
2982 fixed. :)</p>
2983
2984       </div>
2985       <div class="tags">
2986
2987
2988         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>.
2989
2990
2991       </div>
2992     </div>
2993     <div class="padding"></div>
2994
2995     <div class="entry">
2996       <div class="title">
2997         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
2998       </div>
2999       <div class="date">
3000          4th July 2013
3001       </div>
3002       <div class="body">
3003         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
3004 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
3005 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
3006 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
3007 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
3008 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
3009 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
3010 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
3011 with an expencive door stop.</p>
3012
3013 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3014 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3015 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3016 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3017 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3018 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
3019 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
3020
3021 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
3022 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
3023 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
3024 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
3025 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
3026 new laptop now. :)</p>
3027
3028 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
3029
3030       </div>
3031       <div class="tags">
3032
3033
3034         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>.
3035
3036
3037       </div>
3038     </div>
3039     <div class="padding"></div>
3040
3041     <div class="entry">
3042       <div class="title">
3043         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
3044       </div>
3045       <div class="date">
3046         25th June 2013
3047       </div>
3048       <div class="body">
3049         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
3050 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
3051 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
3052 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
3053 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
3054 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
3055 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
3056 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
3057 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
3058 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
3059 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
3060
3061 <p><pre>
3062 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3063 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
3064 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
3065 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
3066 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
3067 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
3068 firmware-ipw2x00
3069 firmware-ipw2x00
3070 Preconfiguring packages ...
3071 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
3072 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
3073 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
3074 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
3075 #
3076 </pre></p>
3077
3078 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
3079 printed instead:</p>
3080
3081 <p><pre>
3082 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3083 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
3084 #
3085 </pre></p>
3086
3087 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
3088 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
3089
3090 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
3091 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
3092 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
3093 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
3094 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
3095 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
3096 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
3097 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
3098 machine.</p>
3099
3100 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
3101 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
3102 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
3103 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
3104 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
3105 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
3106
3107       </div>
3108       <div class="tags">
3109
3110
3111         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3112
3113
3114       </div>
3115     </div>
3116     <div class="padding"></div>
3117
3118     <div class="entry">
3119       <div class="title">
3120         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
3121       </div>
3122       <div class="date">
3123         11th June 2013
3124       </div>
3125       <div class="body">
3126         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
3127 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
3128 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
3129 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
3130 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
3131 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
3132 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
3133 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
3134 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
3135 i915 driver used by the
3136 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
3137 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
3138
3139 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
3140 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
3141 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
3142 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
3143 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
3144
3145 <pre>
3146 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
3147 update-initramfs -u -k all
3148 </pre>
3149
3150 <p>Since March 2012 there is
3151 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
3152 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
3153 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
3154 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
3155 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
3156 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
3157 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
3158 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
3159 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
3160 number.</p>
3161
3162 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
3163 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
3164
3165 <p><pre>
3166 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
3167     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
3168     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
3169  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
3170  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
3171     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
3172  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
3173     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
3174  Latency: 0
3175  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
3176  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
3177  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
3178  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
3179  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
3180  Capabilities: <access denied>
3181  Kernel driver in use: i915
3182 </pre></p>
3183
3184 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
3185
3186 <p><pre>
3187 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
3188        ...
3189         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
3190         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
3191        ...
3192 }
3193 </pre></p>
3194
3195 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
3196 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
3197 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
3198 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
3199 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
3200 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
3201 yet shown up in
3202 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
3203 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
3204 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
3205 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
3206 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
3207 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
3208
3209 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
3210 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
3211 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
3212 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
3213 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
3214 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
3215 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
3216 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
3217 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
3218 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
3219 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
3220 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
3221
3222 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
3223 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
3224 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
3225 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
3226 backlight.</p>
3227
3228       </div>
3229       <div class="tags">
3230
3231
3232         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>.
3233
3234
3235       </div>
3236     </div>
3237     <div class="padding"></div>
3238
3239     <div class="entry">
3240       <div class="title">
3241         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
3242       </div>
3243       <div class="date">
3244         27th May 2013
3245       </div>
3246       <div class="body">
3247         <p>Two days ago, I asked
3248 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
3249 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
3250 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
3251 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
3252 and Windows 8.</p>
3253
3254 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
3255 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
3256 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
3257 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
3258 enough to tell.</p>
3259
3260 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
3261 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
3262 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
3263 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
3264 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
3265 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
3266 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
3267 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
3268 to follow.</p>
3269
3270 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
3271 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
3272 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
3273 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
3274 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
3275 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
3276 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
3277 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
3278
3279 <p>I've updated the
3280 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
3281 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
3282 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
3283 machine.</p>
3284
3285 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
3286 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
3287
3288       </div>
3289       <div class="tags">
3290
3291
3292         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>.
3293
3294
3295       </div>
3296     </div>
3297     <div class="padding"></div>
3298
3299     <div class="entry">
3300       <div class="title">
3301         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
3302       </div>
3303       <div class="date">
3304         25th May 2013
3305       </div>
3306       <div class="body">
3307         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
3308 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
3309 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
3310 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
3311 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
3312 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
3313
3314 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
3315 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
3316 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
3317 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
3318 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
3319 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
3320 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
3321 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
3322 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
3323 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
3324
3325 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
3326 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
3327 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
3328 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
3329 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
3330 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
3331
3332 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
3333 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
3334 on new Laptops?</p>
3335
3336       </div>
3337       <div class="tags">
3338
3339
3340         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>.
3341
3342
3343       </div>
3344     </div>
3345     <div class="padding"></div>
3346
3347     <div class="entry">
3348       <div class="title">
3349         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
3350       </div>
3351       <div class="date">
3352         17th May 2013
3353       </div>
3354       <div class="body">
3355         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
3356 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
3357 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
3358 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
3359 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
3360 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
3361 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
3362 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
3363 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
3364 donate some money</a>.
3365
3366 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
3367 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
3368 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
3369 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
3370 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
3371
3372 <p>The script,
3373 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
3374 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
3375 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
3376 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
3377
3378 <ol>
3379
3380 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
3381 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
3382 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
3383     our configuration.</li>
3384 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
3385     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
3386     according to the profile specified in the config above,
3387     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
3388 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
3389     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
3390 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
3391
3392 </ol>
3393
3394 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
3395 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
3396 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
3397 the needed packages.</p>
3398
3399 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
3400 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
3401 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
3402 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
3403 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
3404 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
3405
3406 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
3407 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
3408 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
3409
3410 <p><pre>
3411 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
3412 DESKTOP="lxde"
3413 </pre></p>
3414
3415 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
3416 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
3417 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
3418 boot.</p>
3419
3420       </div>
3421       <div class="tags">
3422
3423
3424         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>.
3425
3426
3427       </div>
3428     </div>
3429     <div class="padding"></div>
3430
3431     <div class="entry">
3432       <div class="title">
3433         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
3434       </div>
3435       <div class="date">
3436         11th May 2013
3437       </div>
3438       <div class="body">
3439         <P>In January,
3440 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
3441 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
3442 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
3443 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
3444 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
3445 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
3446 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
3447 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
3448 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
3449 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
3450 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
3451 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
3452
3453 <p><table>
3454 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
3455 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
3456 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
3457 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
3458 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
3459 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
3460 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
3461 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
3462 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
3463 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
3464 </table></p>
3465
3466 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
3467 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
3468 available in experimental.</p>
3469
3470 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
3471 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
3472 for LEGO designers.</p>
3473
3474       </div>
3475       <div class="tags">
3476
3477
3478         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3479
3480
3481       </div>
3482     </div>
3483     <div class="padding"></div>
3484
3485     <div class="entry">
3486       <div class="title">
3487         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
3488       </div>
3489       <div class="date">
3490          5th May 2013
3491       </div>
3492       <div class="body">
3493         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
3494 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
3495 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
3496 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
3497 soon.</p>
3498
3499 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
3500 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
3501 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
3502 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
3503 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
3504 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
3505 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
3506 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
3507 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
3508 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
3509 Edu.</a>
3510
3511 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
3512 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
3513 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
3514 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
3515 follow.<p>
3516
3517       </div>
3518       <div class="tags">
3519
3520
3521         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>.
3522
3523
3524       </div>
3525     </div>
3526     <div class="padding"></div>
3527
3528     <div class="entry">
3529       <div class="title">
3530         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
3531       </div>
3532       <div class="date">
3533          3rd April 2013
3534       </div>
3535       <div class="body">
3536         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
3537 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
3538 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
3539 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
3540
3541 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
3542 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
3543 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
3544 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
3545 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
3546 BTS. :)</p>
3547
3548       </div>
3549       <div class="tags">
3550
3551
3552         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3553
3554
3555       </div>
3556     </div>
3557     <div class="padding"></div>
3558
3559     <div class="entry">
3560       <div class="title">
3561         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
3562       </div>
3563       <div class="date">
3564          2nd February 2013
3565       </div>
3566       <div class="body">
3567         <p>My
3568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
3569 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
3570 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
3571 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
3572 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
3573 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
3574 version too.</p>
3575
3576 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
3577 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
3578 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
3579 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
3580 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
3581 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
3582 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
3583 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
3584
3585 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
3586 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
3587 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
3588 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
3589 it. :)</p>
3590
3591 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3592 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3593 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3594
3595       </div>
3596       <div class="tags">
3597
3598
3599         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>.
3600
3601
3602       </div>
3603     </div>
3604     <div class="padding"></div>
3605
3606     <div class="entry">
3607       <div class="title">
3608         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
3609       </div>
3610       <div class="date">
3611         22nd January 2013
3612       </div>
3613       <div class="body">
3614         <p>Yesterday, I
3615 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
3616 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
3617 pluggable hardware devices, which I
3618 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
3619 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
3620 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
3621 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
3622 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
3623 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
3624 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
3625 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
3626 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
3627 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
3628
3629 <pre>
3630 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
3631 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
3632 </pre>
3633
3634 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
3635 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
3636 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
3637 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
3638
3639 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
3640 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
3641 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
3642 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
3643 word.</p>
3644
3645 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
3646 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
3647 process.</p>
3648
3649 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
3650 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
3651
3652       </div>
3653       <div class="tags">
3654
3655
3656         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3657
3658
3659       </div>
3660     </div>
3661     <div class="padding"></div>
3662
3663     <div class="entry">
3664       <div class="title">
3665         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
3666       </div>
3667       <div class="date">
3668         21st January 2013
3669       </div>
3670       <div class="body">
3671         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
3672 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
3673 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
3674 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
3675 it, fetch the
3676 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
3677 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
3678 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
3679 autostart script.</p>
3680
3681 <p>The design is simple:</p>
3682
3683 <ul>
3684
3685 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
3686 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
3687
3688 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
3689 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
3690 initially did.</li>
3691
3692 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
3693 the APT database, a database
3694 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
3695 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
3696
3697 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
3698 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
3699 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
3700 package or packages.</li>
3701
3702 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
3703 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
3704
3705 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
3706 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
3707
3708 </ul>
3709
3710 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
3711 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
3712 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
3713 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
3714
3715 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
3716 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
3717 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
3718 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
3719 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
3720
3721 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
3722 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
3723 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
3724 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
3725 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
3726 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
3727 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
3728 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
3729
3730 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
3731 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
3732 '<tt>svn checkout
3733 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
3734 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
3735 devscripts package.</p>
3736
3737 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
3738 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
3739 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
3740 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
3741 instructions</a> for details.</p>
3742
3743       </div>
3744       <div class="tags">
3745
3746
3747         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3748
3749
3750       </div>
3751     </div>
3752     <div class="padding"></div>
3753
3754     <div class="entry">
3755       <div class="title">
3756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
3757       </div>
3758       <div class="date">
3759         19th January 2013
3760       </div>
3761       <div class="body">
3762         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
3763 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
3764 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
3765 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
3766 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
3767 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
3768 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
3769 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
3770 not a durable solution.
3771
3772 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
3773 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
3774
3775 <ul>
3776
3777 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
3778   than A4).</li>
3779 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
3780 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
3781 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
3782 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
3783 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
3784 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
3785 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
3786 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
3787 size).</li>
3788 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
3789   X.org packages.</li>
3790 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
3791   the time).
3792
3793 </ul>
3794
3795 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
3796 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
3797 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
3798 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
3799 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
3800 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
3801 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
3802 still be useful.</p>
3803
3804 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
3805 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
3806 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
3807 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
3808 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
3809 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
3810
3811       </div>
3812       <div class="tags">
3813
3814
3815         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>.
3816
3817
3818       </div>
3819     </div>
3820     <div class="padding"></div>
3821
3822     <div class="entry">
3823       <div class="title">
3824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
3825       </div>
3826       <div class="date">
3827         18th January 2013
3828       </div>
3829       <div class="body">
3830         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
3831 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
3832 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
3833 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
3834 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
3835 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
3836 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
3837
3838 <pre>
3839 #!/usr/bin/python
3840 import sys
3841 import apt
3842 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3843     cache = apt.Cache()
3844     cache.open(None)
3845     thepkgs = []
3846     for pkg in cache:
3847         version = pkg.candidate
3848         if version is None:
3849             version = pkg.installed
3850         if version is None:
3851             continue
3852         record = version.record
3853         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
3854             continue
3855         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
3856         for t in mime_types:
3857             t = t.rstrip().strip()
3858             if t == mimetype:
3859                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
3860     return thepkgs
3861 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
3862 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
3863     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
3864 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
3865 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3866     print "  %s" %pkg
3867 </pre>
3868
3869 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
3870
3871 <pre>
3872 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
3873 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
3874   gecko-mediaplayer
3875 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
3876 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
3877   browser-plugin-gnash
3878 %
3879 </pre>
3880
3881 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
3882 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
3883 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
3884 anyone working on adding it?</p>
3885
3886 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
3887 request for icweasel support for this feature is
3888 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
3889 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
3890 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
3891 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
3892
3893       </div>
3894       <div class="tags">
3895
3896
3897         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>.
3898
3899
3900       </div>
3901     </div>
3902     <div class="padding"></div>
3903
3904     <div class="entry">
3905       <div class="title">
3906         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
3907       </div>
3908       <div class="date">
3909         16th January 2013
3910       </div>
3911       <div class="body">
3912         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
3913 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
3914 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
3915 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
3916 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
3917 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
3918 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
3919 downloaded by the browser.</p>
3920
3921 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
3922 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
3923 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
3924 can be found on the
3925 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
3926 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
3927 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
3928 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
3929 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
3930
3931 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
3932
3933 <pre>
3934   count MIME type
3935   ----- -----------------------
3936      32 text/plain
3937      30 audio/mpeg
3938      29 image/png
3939      28 image/jpeg
3940      27 application/ogg
3941      26 audio/x-mp3
3942      25 image/tiff
3943      25 image/gif
3944      22 image/bmp
3945      22 audio/x-wav
3946      20 audio/x-flac
3947      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3948      18 video/x-ms-asf
3949      18 audio/x-musepack
3950      18 audio/x-mpeg
3951      18 application/x-ogg
3952      17 video/mpeg
3953      17 audio/x-scpls
3954      17 audio/ogg
3955      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3956 </pre>
3957
3958 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
3959
3960 <pre>
3961   count MIME type
3962   ----- -----------------------
3963      33 text/plain
3964      32 image/png
3965      32 image/jpeg
3966      29 audio/mpeg
3967      27 image/gif
3968      26 image/tiff
3969      26 application/ogg
3970      25 audio/x-mp3
3971      22 image/bmp
3972      21 audio/x-wav
3973      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3974      19 audio/x-mpeg
3975      18 video/mpeg
3976      18 audio/x-scpls
3977      18 audio/x-flac
3978      18 application/x-ogg
3979      17 video/x-ms-asf
3980      17 text/html
3981      17 audio/x-musepack
3982      16 image/x-xbitmap
3983 </pre>
3984
3985 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
3986
3987 <pre>
3988   count MIME type
3989   ----- -----------------------
3990      31 text/plain
3991      31 image/png
3992      31 image/jpeg
3993      29 audio/mpeg
3994      28 application/ogg
3995      27 image/gif
3996      26 image/tiff
3997      26 audio/x-mp3
3998      23 audio/x-wav
3999      22 image/bmp
4000      21 audio/x-flac
4001      20 audio/x-mpegurl
4002      19 audio/x-mpeg
4003      18 video/x-ms-asf
4004      18 video/mpeg
4005      18 audio/x-scpls
4006      18 application/x-ogg
4007      17 audio/x-musepack
4008      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4009      16 video/x-msvideo
4010 </pre>
4011
4012 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
4013 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
4014 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
4015 issues.</p>
4016
4017 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
4018 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
4019
4020       </div>
4021       <div class="tags">
4022
4023
4024         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>.
4025
4026
4027       </div>
4028     </div>
4029     <div class="padding"></div>
4030
4031     <div class="entry">
4032       <div class="title">
4033         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
4034       </div>
4035       <div class="date">
4036         15th January 2013
4037       </div>
4038       <div class="body">
4039         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
4040 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
4041 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
4042 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
4043 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
4044 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
4045 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
4046 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
4047 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
4048 packages.</p>
4049
4050 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
4051 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
4052 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
4053 modalias.</p>
4054
4055 <p><blockquote>
4056 Package: package-name
4057 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
4058 </blockquote></p>
4059
4060 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
4061 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
4062
4063 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
4064 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
4065
4066 <p><blockquote>
4067 Package: cheese
4068 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
4069 </blockquote></p>
4070
4071 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
4072 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
4073
4074 <p><blockquote>
4075 Package: pcmciautils
4076 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
4077 </blockquote></p>
4078
4079 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
4080 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
4081
4082 <p><blockquote>
4083 Package: colorhug-client
4084 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
4085 </blockquote></p>
4086
4087 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
4088 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
4089 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
4090
4091 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
4092 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
4093 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
4094 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
4095 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
4096 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
4097 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
4098 Raring.</p>
4099
4100 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
4101 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
4102 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
4103 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
4104 try the
4105 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
4106 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
4107 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
4108 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
4109
4110 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
4111 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
4112
4113 <p><blockquote>
4114 % ./hw-support-lookup
4115 <br>yubikey-personalization
4116 <br>%
4117 </blockquote></p>
4118
4119 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
4120 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
4121
4122 <p><blockquote>
4123 % ./hw-support-lookup
4124 <br>pcmciautils
4125 <br>%
4126 </blockquote></p>
4127
4128 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
4129 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
4130 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
4131
4132 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
4133 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
4134 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
4135 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
4136 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
4137 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
4138 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
4139 see if it work.</p>
4140
4141 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4142 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4143 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4144 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4145
4146       </div>
4147       <div class="tags">
4148
4149
4150         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4151
4152
4153       </div>
4154     </div>
4155     <div class="padding"></div>
4156
4157     <div class="entry">
4158       <div class="title">
4159         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
4160       </div>
4161       <div class="date">
4162         14th January 2013
4163       </div>
4164       <div class="body">
4165         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
4166 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
4167 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
4168 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
4169 in
4170 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
4171 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
4172
4173 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
4174
4175 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
4176 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
4177 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
4178 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
4179 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
4180 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
4181
4182 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
4183 this shell script:</p>
4184
4185 <pre>
4186 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
4187 </pre>
4188
4189 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
4190 using modinfo:</p>
4191
4192 <pre>
4193 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
4194 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
4195 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
4196 %
4197 </pre>
4198
4199 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
4200
4201 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
4202 Bridge memory controller:</p>
4203
4204 <p><blockquote>
4205 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
4206 </blockquote></p>
4207
4208 <p>This represent these values:</p>
4209
4210 <pre>
4211  v   00008086  (vendor)
4212  d   00002770  (device)
4213  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
4214  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
4215  bc  06        (bus class)
4216  sc  00        (bus subclass)
4217  i   00        (interface)
4218 </pre>
4219
4220 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
4221 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
4222 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
4223 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
4224
4225 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
4226 means.</p>
4227
4228 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
4229
4230 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
4231 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
4232
4233 <p><blockquote>
4234 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
4235 </blockquote></p>
4236
4237 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
4238
4239 <pre>
4240  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
4241  p    0001  (device product)
4242  d    0206  (bcddevice)
4243  dc     09  (device class)
4244  dsc    00  (device subclass)
4245  dp     00  (device protocol)
4246  ic     09  (interface class)
4247  isc    00  (interface subclass)
4248  ip     00  (interface protocol)
4249 </pre>
4250
4251 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
4252 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
4253 these alias entries show up:</p>
4254
4255 <p><blockquote>
4256 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
4257 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
4258 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
4259 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
4260 </blockquote></p>
4261
4262 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
4263 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
4264 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
4265
4266 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
4267
4268 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
4269 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
4270
4271 <p><blockquote>
4272 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4273 </blockquote></p>
4274
4275 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
4276
4277 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
4278
4279 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
4280 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
4281 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
4282
4283 <p><blockquote>
4284 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
4285 </blockquote></p>
4286
4287 <p>The values present are</p>
4288
4289 <pre>
4290  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
4291  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
4292  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
4293  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
4294  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
4295  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
4296  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
4297  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
4298  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
4299  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
4300  ct   10             (chassis type)
4301  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
4302 </pre>
4303
4304 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
4305 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
4306
4307 <pre>
4308   3 Desktop
4309   4 Low Profile Desktop
4310   5 Pizza Box
4311   6 Mini Tower
4312   7 Tower
4313   8 Portable
4314   9 Laptop
4315  10 Notebook
4316  11 Hand Held
4317  12 Docking Station
4318  13 All In One
4319  14 Sub Notebook
4320  15 Space-saving
4321  16 Lunch Box
4322  17 Main Server Chassis
4323  18 Expansion Chassis
4324  19 Sub Chassis
4325  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
4326  21 Peripheral Chassis
4327  22 RAID Chassis
4328  23 Rack Mount Chassis
4329  24 Sealed-case PC
4330  25 Multi-system
4331  26 CompactPCI
4332  27 AdvancedTCA
4333  28 Blade
4334  29 Blade Enclosing
4335 </pre>
4336
4337 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
4338 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
4339 claim it is a desktop.</p>
4340
4341 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
4342
4343 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
4344 test machine:</p>
4345
4346 <p><blockquote>
4347 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
4348 </blockquote></p>
4349
4350 <p>The values present are</p>
4351
4352 <pre>
4353   ty  01  (type)
4354   pr  00  (prototype)
4355   id  00  (id)
4356   ex  00  (extra)
4357 </pre>
4358
4359 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
4360 the valid values are.</p>
4361
4362 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
4363
4364 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
4365 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
4366 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
4367 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
4368 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
4369 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
4370 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
4371
4372 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
4373
4374 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
4375 one can use the following shell script:</p>
4376
4377 <pre>
4378   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
4379     echo "$id" ; \
4380     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
4381   done
4382 </pre>
4383
4384 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
4385 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
4386
4387 <pre>
4388   acpi:ACPI0003:
4389     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
4390   acpi:device:
4391   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
4392   acpi:IBM0068:
4393     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
4394     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
4395     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
4396     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
4397   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4398     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
4399     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
4400     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
4401   [...]
4402 </pre>
4403
4404 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4405 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4406 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4407 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4408
4409 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
4410 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
4411 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
4412
4413       </div>
4414       <div class="tags">
4415
4416
4417         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4418
4419
4420       </div>
4421     </div>
4422     <div class="padding"></div>
4423
4424     <div class="entry">
4425       <div class="title">
4426         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
4427       </div>
4428       <div class="date">
4429         10th January 2013
4430       </div>
4431       <div class="body">
4432         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
4433 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
4434 Launcher and updated the Debian package
4435 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
4436 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
4437 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
4438 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
4439 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
4440 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
4441 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
4442 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
4443 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
4444 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
4445 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
4446 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
4447 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
4448 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
4449 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
4450
4451       </div>
4452       <div class="tags">
4453
4454
4455         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
4456
4457
4458       </div>
4459     </div>
4460     <div class="padding"></div>
4461
4462     <div class="entry">
4463       <div class="title">
4464         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
4465       </div>
4466       <div class="date">
4467          9th January 2013
4468       </div>
4469       <div class="body">
4470         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
4471 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
4472 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
4473 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
4474 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
4475 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
4476 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
4477 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
4478 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
4479 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
4480 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
4481
4482 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
4483 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
4484 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
4485 simple:
4486
4487 <ul>
4488
4489 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
4490   starting when a user log in.</li>
4491
4492 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
4493   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
4494
4495 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
4496   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
4497   packages.</li>
4498
4499 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
4500   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
4501
4502 </ul>
4503
4504 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
4505 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
4506 discover database to find packages and
4507 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
4508 packages.</p>
4509
4510 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
4511 draft package is now checked into
4512 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
4513 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
4514 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
4515 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
4516 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
4517 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
4518 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
4519 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
4520 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
4521 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
4522 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
4523 because of the freeze).</p>
4524
4525 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
4526 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
4527 inserted):</p>
4528
4529 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
4530
4531 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
4532 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
4533 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
4534
4535 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
4536 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
4537 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
4538 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
4539 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
4540 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
4541 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
4542
4543 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
4544 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
4545 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
4546 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
4547 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
4548 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
4549 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
4550 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
4551 not be installed?</p>
4552
4553 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
4554 please send me an email. :)</p>
4555
4556       </div>
4557       <div class="tags">
4558
4559
4560         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4561
4562
4563       </div>
4564     </div>
4565     <div class="padding"></div>
4566
4567     <div class="entry">
4568       <div class="title">
4569         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
4570       </div>
4571       <div class="date">
4572          2nd January 2013
4573       </div>
4574       <div class="body">
4575         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
4576 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
4577 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
4578 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
4579 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
4580 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
4581 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
4582 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
4583 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
4584 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
4585
4586 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
4587 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
4588 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
4589
4590       </div>
4591       <div class="tags">
4592
4593
4594         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
4595
4596
4597       </div>
4598     </div>
4599     <div class="padding"></div>
4600
4601     <div class="entry">
4602       <div class="title">
4603         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
4604       </div>
4605       <div class="date">
4606         25th December 2012
4607       </div>
4608       <div class="body">
4609         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
4610 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
4611
4612 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
4613 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
4614 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
4615 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
4616 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
4617 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
4618 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
4619 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
4620 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
4621 name.</p>
4622
4623 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
4624 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
4625 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
4626
4627 <blockquote><pre>
4628 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
4629 cd bitcoin
4630 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
4631 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
4632 </pre></blockquote>
4633
4634 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
4635 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
4636 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
4637 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
4638 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
4639 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
4640 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
4641 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
4642 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
4643
4644 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4645 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4646 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4647
4648       </div>
4649       <div class="tags">
4650
4651
4652         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>.
4653
4654
4655       </div>
4656     </div>
4657     <div class="padding"></div>
4658
4659     <div class="entry">
4660       <div class="title">
4661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
4662       </div>
4663       <div class="date">
4664         21st December 2012
4665       </div>
4666       <div class="body">
4667         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
4668 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
4669 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
4670 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
4671 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
4672 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
4673 is now maintained by a
4674 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
4675 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
4676 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
4677 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
4678 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
4679 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
4680 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
4681 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
4682 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
4683 Corallo in a
4684 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
4685 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
4686 Debian package.</p>
4687
4688 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
4689 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
4690 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
4691 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
4692 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
4693 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
4694 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
4695 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
4696 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
4697 new version to unstable.
4698
4699 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
4700 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
4701 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
4702 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
4703 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
4704 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
4705 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
4706 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
4707 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
4708 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
4709 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
4710 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
4711 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
4712 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
4713 have not tested them.</p>
4714
4715 <p>My
4716 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
4717 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
4718 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
4719 years ago, as can be
4720 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
4721 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
4722 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
4723 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
4724 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
4725 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
4726 the same address as last time,
4727 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4728
4729       </div>
4730       <div class="tags">
4731
4732
4733         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>.
4734
4735
4736       </div>
4737     </div>
4738     <div class="padding"></div>
4739
4740     <div class="entry">
4741       <div class="title">
4742         <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>
4743       </div>
4744       <div class="date">
4745          7th September 2012
4746       </div>
4747       <div class="body">
4748         <p>As I
4749 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
4750 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
4751 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
4752 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
4753 repository for the project</a>.</p>
4754
4755 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
4756 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
4757 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
4758 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
4759
4760 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
4761 PostScript formats at
4762 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
4763 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
4764
4765       </div>
4766       <div class="tags">
4767
4768
4769         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>.
4770
4771
4772       </div>
4773     </div>
4774     <div class="padding"></div>
4775
4776     <div class="entry">
4777       <div class="title">
4778         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
4779       </div>
4780       <div class="date">
4781         16th August 2012
4782       </div>
4783       <div class="body">
4784         <p>I dag fyller
4785 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
4786 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
4787 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
4788
4789       </div>
4790       <div class="tags">
4791
4792
4793         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
4794
4795
4796       </div>
4797     </div>
4798     <div class="padding"></div>
4799
4800     <div class="entry">
4801       <div class="title">
4802         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
4803       </div>
4804       <div class="date">
4805         24th June 2012
4806       </div>
4807       <div class="body">
4808         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
4809 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
4810 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
4811 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
4812 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
4813 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
4814 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
4815 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
4816 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
4817 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
4818 missing in my book.</p>
4819
4820 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
4821 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
4822 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
4823 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
4824 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
4825 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
4826 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
4827
4828       </div>
4829       <div class="tags">
4830
4831
4832         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>.
4833
4834
4835       </div>
4836     </div>
4837     <div class="padding"></div>
4838
4839     <div class="entry">
4840       <div class="title">
4841         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
4842       </div>
4843       <div class="date">
4844         21st November 2011
4845       </div>
4846       <div class="body">
4847         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
4848 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
4849 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
4850 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
4851 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
4852 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
4853 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
4854 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
4855 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
4856 the tools to do so.</p>
4857
4858 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
4859 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
4860 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
4861 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
4862
4863 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
4864 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
4865 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
4866 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
4867 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
4868 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
4869 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
4870 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
4871
4872 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
4873 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
4874 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
4875
4876 <p><pre>
4877 #!/usr/bin/perl
4878 use strict;
4879 use warnings;
4880 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
4881 BEGIN {
4882     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
4883     my %rhelmodules = (
4884         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
4885         );
4886     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
4887         eval "use $module;";
4888         if ($@) {
4889             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
4890             system("yum install -y $pkg");
4891             eval "use $module;";
4892         }
4893     }
4894 }
4895 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
4896
4897 upgrade_dell();
4898
4899 exit 0;
4900
4901 sub run_firmware_script {
4902     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
4903     unless ($script) {
4904         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
4905         exit 1
4906     }
4907     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
4908
4909     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
4910         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
4911     } else {
4912         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
4913     }
4914 }
4915
4916 sub run_firmware_scripts {
4917     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
4918     # Run firmware packages
4919     for my $dir (@dirs) {
4920         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
4921         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
4922         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
4923             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
4924             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
4925         }
4926         closedir $dh;
4927     }
4928 }
4929
4930 sub download {
4931     my $url = shift;
4932     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
4933     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
4934 }
4935
4936 sub upgrade_dell {
4937     my @dirs;
4938     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4939     chomp $product;
4940
4941     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
4942
4943         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
4944         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
4945
4946         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
4947             CLEANUP => 1
4948             );
4949         chdir($tmpdir);
4950         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
4951         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
4952         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
4953         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
4954         my $fwopts = "-q";
4955         if (@paths) {
4956             for my $url (@paths) {
4957                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
4958             }
4959             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
4960         } else {
4961             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4962             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4963         }
4964         chdir('/');
4965     } else {
4966         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4967         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4968     }
4969 }
4970
4971 sub fetch_dell_fw {
4972     my $path = shift;
4973     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
4974     download($url);
4975 }
4976
4977 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
4978 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
4979 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
4980 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
4981     my $filename = shift;
4982
4983     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4984     chomp $product;
4985     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
4986
4987     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
4988
4989     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
4990     my @paths;
4991     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
4992         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
4993         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
4994         my $oscode;
4995         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
4996             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
4997         } else {
4998             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
4999         }
5000         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
5001         {
5002             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
5003         }
5004     }
5005     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5006         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
5007
5008         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5009         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
5010
5011         my $cpath = $component->{path};
5012         for my $path (@paths) {
5013             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5014                 push(@paths, $cpath);
5015             }
5016         }
5017     }
5018     return @paths;
5019 }
5020 </pre>
5021
5022 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5023 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
5024 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
5025 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5026 outdated.</p>
5027
5028       </div>
5029       <div class="tags">
5030
5031
5032         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>.
5033
5034
5035       </div>
5036     </div>
5037     <div class="padding"></div>
5038
5039     <div class="entry">
5040       <div class="title">
5041         <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>
5042       </div>
5043       <div class="date">
5044          4th August 2011
5045       </div>
5046       <div class="body">
5047         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
5048 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
5049 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
5050 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
5051 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
5052 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
5053 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
5054 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5055 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
5056
5057 <p><blockquote>
5058 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5059 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
5060 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5061 </blockquote></p>
5062
5063 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5064 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
5065 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5066 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5067 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
5068 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5069 hard to explain.</p>
5070
5071 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5072 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
5073 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
5074 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5075 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5076 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5077 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5078 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5079 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5080 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
5081 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5082 mode).</p>
5083
5084 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
5085 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5086 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
5087 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
5088 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
5089 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
5090 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5091 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5092 after visiting single user mode.</p>
5093
5094 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5095 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
5096 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5097 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5098 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5099 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5100 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
5101 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
5102
5103 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5104 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
5105 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
5106
5107       </div>
5108       <div class="tags">
5109
5110
5111         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>.
5112
5113
5114       </div>
5115     </div>
5116     <div class="padding"></div>
5117
5118     <div class="entry">
5119       <div class="title">
5120         <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>
5121       </div>
5122       <div class="date">
5123         30th July 2011
5124       </div>
5125       <div class="body">
5126         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
5127 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
5128 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
5129 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
5130 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
5131 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
5132 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
5133 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
5134 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
5135 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
5136 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
5137 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
5138 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
5139
5140 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
5141 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
5142 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
5143 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
5144 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
5145 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
5146 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
5147 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
5148 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
5149
5150 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
5151 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
5152 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
5153 is presented.</p>
5154
5155 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
5156 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
5157 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
5158 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
5159 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
5160 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
5161 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
5162 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
5163 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
5164 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
5165 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
5166 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
5167 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
5168 find time to push this forward.</p>
5169
5170       </div>
5171       <div class="tags">
5172
5173
5174         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>.
5175
5176
5177       </div>
5178     </div>
5179     <div class="padding"></div>
5180
5181     <div class="entry">
5182       <div class="title">
5183         <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>
5184       </div>
5185       <div class="date">
5186         29th July 2011
5187       </div>
5188       <div class="body">
5189         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
5190 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
5191 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
5192 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
5193 issues.</p>
5194
5195 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
5196 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
5197 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
5198
5199 <ol>
5200
5201 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
5202 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
5203 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
5204 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
5205 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
5206 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
5207 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
5208 Debian.</li>
5209
5210 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
5211 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
5212 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
5213 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
5214 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
5215 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
5216 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
5217 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5218 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5219 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
5220 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5221 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5222 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
5223
5224 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5225 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
5226 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5227 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
5228 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
5229 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5230 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
5231 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
5232 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5233 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
5234
5235 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
5236 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5237 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5238 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
5239 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
5240 latter behaviour.</li>
5241
5242 </ol>
5243
5244 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5245 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5246 it do not matter much.</p>
5247
5248 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5249 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
5250 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
5251
5252       </div>
5253       <div class="tags">
5254
5255
5256         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5257
5258
5259       </div>
5260     </div>
5261     <div class="padding"></div>
5262
5263     <div class="entry">
5264       <div class="title">
5265         <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>
5266       </div>
5267       <div class="date">
5268         26th July 2011
5269       </div>
5270       <div class="body">
5271         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
5272 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
5273 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
5274 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
5275 security support for a few years.</p>
5276
5277 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
5278 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
5279 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
5280 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
5281 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
5282 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
5283 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
5284 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
5285 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
5286 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
5287 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
5288 easier in the future.</p>
5289
5290 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
5291 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
5292 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
5293 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
5294 do not have time for.</p>
5295
5296       </div>
5297       <div class="tags">
5298
5299
5300         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>.
5301
5302
5303       </div>
5304     </div>
5305     <div class="padding"></div>
5306
5307     <div class="entry">
5308       <div class="title">
5309         <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>
5310       </div>
5311       <div class="date">
5312          3rd April 2011
5313       </div>
5314       <div class="body">
5315         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
5316 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
5317 update in English.</p>
5318
5319 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
5320 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
5321 of the British service
5322 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
5323 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
5324 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
5325 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
5326 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
5327 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
5328 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
5329 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
5330 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
5331 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
5332 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
5333 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
5334 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
5335
5336 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
5337 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
5338 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
5339 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
5340 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
5341 public infrastructure.</p>
5342
5343 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
5344 such service?</p>
5345
5346       </div>
5347       <div class="tags">
5348
5349
5350         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>.
5351
5352
5353       </div>
5354     </div>
5355     <div class="padding"></div>
5356
5357     <div class="entry">
5358       <div class="title">
5359         <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>
5360       </div>
5361       <div class="date">
5362         28th January 2011
5363       </div>
5364       <div class="body">
5365         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
5366 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
5367 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
5368 available on the Internet, and check our locally
5369 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
5370 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
5371 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
5372 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
5373 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
5374 out which security holes were present in our free software
5375 collection.</p>
5376
5377 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
5378 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
5379 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
5380 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
5381 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
5382 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
5383 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
5384 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
5385 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
5386 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
5387 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
5388 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
5389 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
5390 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
5391 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
5392 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
5393
5394 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
5395 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
5396 check out, one could look up
5397 <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
5398 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
5399 The most recent one is
5400 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
5401 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
5402 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
5403
5404 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
5405 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
5406 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
5407 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
5408 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
5409 security issues out.</p>
5410
5411 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
5412 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
5413 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
5414 RHEL is providing
5415 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
5416 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
5417 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
5418
5419 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
5420 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
5421 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
5422 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
5423 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
5424 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
5425 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
5426 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
5427 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
5428 established soon.</p>
5429
5430 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
5431 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
5432 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
5433 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
5434 for their packages.</p>
5435
5436       </div>
5437       <div class="tags">
5438
5439
5440         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>.
5441
5442
5443       </div>
5444     </div>
5445     <div class="padding"></div>
5446
5447     <div class="entry">
5448       <div class="title">
5449         <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>
5450       </div>
5451       <div class="date">
5452         23rd January 2011
5453       </div>
5454       <div class="body">
5455         <p>In the
5456 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
5457 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
5458 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
5459 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
5460 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
5461 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
5462 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
5463 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
5464 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
5465 one of my machines like this:</p>
5466
5467 <pre>
5468 loaded modules:
5469 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
5470 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
5471 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
5472 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
5473 10de:03ec pata_amd
5474 10de:03f6 sata_nv
5475 1022:1103 k8temp
5476 109e:036e bttv
5477 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
5478 11ab:4364 sky2
5479 </pre>
5480
5481 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
5482 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
5483
5484 <pre>
5485 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
5486     echo loaded pci modules:
5487     (
5488         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
5489         for address in * ; do
5490             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5491                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5492                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5493                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5494                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
5495                     echo "$id $module"
5496                 fi
5497             fi
5498         done
5499     )
5500     echo
5501 fi
5502 </pre>
5503
5504 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
5505 mappings:</p>
5506
5507 <pre>
5508 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
5509     echo loaded usb modules:
5510     (
5511         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
5512         for address in * ; do
5513             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5514                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5515                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5516                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5517                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
5518                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
5519                         echo "$id $module"
5520                     fi
5521                 fi
5522             fi
5523         done
5524     )
5525     echo
5526 fi
5527 </pre>
5528
5529 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
5530 well.</p>
5531
5532       </div>
5533       <div class="tags">
5534
5535
5536         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>.
5537
5538
5539       </div>
5540     </div>
5541     <div class="padding"></div>
5542
5543     <div class="entry">
5544       <div class="title">
5545         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
5546       </div>
5547       <div class="date">
5548         22nd December 2010
5549       </div>
5550       <div class="body">
5551         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
5552 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
5553 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
5554 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
5555 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
5556 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
5557 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
5558 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
5559 university.</p>
5560
5561 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
5562 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
5563 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
5564 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
5565 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
5566 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
5567 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
5568 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
5569
5570 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
5571 I perform on a new model.</p>
5572
5573 <ul>
5574
5575 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
5576 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
5577 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
5578
5579 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
5580 installation, X.org is working.</li>
5581
5582 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
5583 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
5584 reported by the program.</li>
5585
5586 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
5587 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
5588 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
5589 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
5590 normally test this by playing
5591 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
5592 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
5593
5594 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
5595 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5596
5597 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
5598 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5599
5600 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
5601 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
5602
5603 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
5604 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
5605 few.</li>
5606
5607 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
5608 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
5609 notice this.</li>
5610
5611 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
5612 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
5613 resume.</li>
5614
5615 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
5616 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
5617 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
5618 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
5619 not.</li>
5620
5621 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
5622 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
5623 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
5624 existence.</li>
5625
5626 </ul>
5627
5628 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
5629 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
5630 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
5631 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
5632 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
5633 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
5634 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
5635 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
5636
5637       </div>
5638       <div class="tags">
5639
5640
5641         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>.
5642
5643
5644       </div>
5645     </div>
5646     <div class="padding"></div>
5647
5648     <div class="entry">
5649       <div class="title">
5650         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
5651       </div>
5652       <div class="date">
5653         11th December 2010
5654       </div>
5655       <div class="body">
5656         <p>As I continue to explore
5657 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
5658 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
5659 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
5660
5661 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
5662 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
5663 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
5664 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
5665 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
5666 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
5667 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
5668 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
5669 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
5670 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
5671 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
5672 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
5673 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
5674 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
5675 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
5676 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
5677 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
5678 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
5679 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
5680 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
5681
5682 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
5683 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
5684 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
5685 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
5686 If the Skolelinux foundation
5687 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
5688 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
5689 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
5690 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
5691 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
5692 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
5693 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
5694 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
5695
5696 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
5697 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
5698 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
5699 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
5700 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
5701 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
5702 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
5703 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
5704 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
5705 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
5706 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
5707 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
5708 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
5709 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
5710 currencies.</p>
5711
5712 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
5713 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
5714 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
5715 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
5716 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
5717 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
5718 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
5719 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
5720 BitCoins.  Check out
5721 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
5722 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
5723 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
5724 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
5725 yet.</p>
5726
5727 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
5728 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
5729 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
5730 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
5731 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
5732
5733       </div>
5734       <div class="tags">
5735
5736
5737         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>.
5738
5739
5740       </div>
5741     </div>
5742     <div class="padding"></div>
5743
5744     <div class="entry">
5745       <div class="title">
5746         <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>
5747       </div>
5748       <div class="date">
5749         10th December 2010
5750       </div>
5751       <div class="body">
5752         <p>With this weeks lawless
5753 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
5754 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
5755 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
5756 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
5757 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
5758 A blog post from
5759 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
5760 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
5761 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
5762 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
5763 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
5764 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
5765 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
5766
5767 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
5768 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
5769 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
5770 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
5771 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
5772 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
5773 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
5774 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
5775 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
5776 Debian</a> soon.</p>
5777
5778 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
5779 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
5780 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
5781 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
5782 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
5783 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
5784 you can even get
5785 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
5786 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
5787 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
5788 on the current exchange rates.</p>
5789
5790 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
5791 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
5792 donations to the address
5793 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
5794
5795       </div>
5796       <div class="tags">
5797
5798
5799         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>.
5800
5801
5802       </div>
5803     </div>
5804     <div class="padding"></div>
5805
5806     <div class="entry">
5807       <div class="title">
5808         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
5809       </div>
5810       <div class="date">
5811         27th November 2010
5812       </div>
5813       <div class="body">
5814         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
5815 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
5816 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
5817 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
5818 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
5819 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
5820 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
5821 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
5822
5823 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
5824 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
5825 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
5826 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
5827 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
5828 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
5829 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
5830 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
5831 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
5832 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
5833 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
5834
5835 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
5836 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
5837 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
5838 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
5839 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
5840 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
5841 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
5842 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
5843 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
5844 what is going on.</p>
5845
5846       </div>
5847       <div class="tags">
5848
5849
5850         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>.
5851
5852
5853       </div>
5854     </div>
5855     <div class="padding"></div>
5856
5857     <div class="entry">
5858       <div class="title">
5859         <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>
5860       </div>
5861       <div class="date">
5862         22nd November 2010
5863       </div>
5864       <div class="body">
5865         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
5866 upgrade testing of the
5867 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5868 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
5869 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
5870 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
5871
5872 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5873
5874 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5875
5876 <blockquote><p>
5877   apache2.2-bin
5878   aptdaemon
5879   baobab
5880   binfmt-support
5881   browser-plugin-gnash
5882   cheese-common
5883   cli-common
5884   cups-pk-helper
5885   dmz-cursor-theme
5886   empathy
5887   empathy-common
5888   freedesktop-sound-theme
5889   freeglut3
5890   gconf-defaults-service
5891   gdm-themes
5892   gedit-plugins
5893   geoclue
5894   geoclue-hostip
5895   geoclue-localnet
5896   geoclue-manual
5897   geoclue-yahoo
5898   gnash
5899   gnash-common
5900   gnome
5901   gnome-backgrounds
5902   gnome-cards-data
5903   gnome-codec-install
5904   gnome-core
5905   gnome-desktop-environment
5906   gnome-disk-utility
5907   gnome-screenshot
5908   gnome-search-tool
5909   gnome-session-canberra
5910   gnome-system-log
5911   gnome-themes-extras
5912   gnome-themes-more
5913   gnome-user-share
5914   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5915   gstreamer0.10-tools
5916   gtk2-engines
5917   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5918   gtk2-engines-smooth
5919   hamster-applet
5920   libapache2-mod-dnssd
5921   libapr1
5922   libaprutil1
5923   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
5924   libaprutil1-ldap
5925   libart2.0-cil
5926   libboost-date-time1.42.0
5927   libboost-python1.42.0
5928   libboost-thread1.42.0
5929   libchamplain-0.4-0
5930   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
5931   libcheese-gtk18
5932   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5933   libcryptui0
5934   libdiscid0
5935   libelf1
5936   libepc-1.0-2
5937   libepc-common
5938   libepc-ui-1.0-2
5939   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5940   libfreerdp0
5941   libgconf2.0-cil
5942   libgdata-common
5943   libgdata7
5944   libgdu-gtk0
5945   libgee2
5946   libgeoclue0
5947   libgexiv2-0
5948   libgif4
5949   libglade2.0-cil
5950   libglib2.0-cil
5951   libgmime2.4-cil
5952   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5953   libgnome2.24-cil
5954   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
5955   libgpod-common
5956   libgpod4
5957   libgtk2.0-cil
5958   libgtkglext1
5959   libgtksourceview2.0-common
5960   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5961   libmono-addins0.2-cil
5962   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
5963   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5964   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
5965   libmono-posix2.0-cil
5966   libmono-security2.0-cil
5967   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5968   libmono-system2.0-cil
5969   libmtp8
5970   libmusicbrainz3-6
5971   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
5972   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
5973   libopal3.6.8
5974   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
5975   libpt2.6.7
5976   libpython2.6
5977   librpm1
5978   librpmio1
5979   libsdl1.2debian
5980   libsrtp0
5981   libssh-4
5982   libtelepathy-farsight0
5983   libtelepathy-glib0
5984   libtidy-0.99-0
5985   media-player-info
5986   mesa-utils
5987   mono-2.0-gac
5988   mono-gac
5989   mono-runtime
5990   nautilus-sendto
5991   nautilus-sendto-empathy
5992   p7zip-full
5993   pkg-config
5994   python-aptdaemon
5995   python-aptdaemon-gtk
5996   python-axiom
5997   python-beautifulsoup
5998   python-bugbuddy
5999   python-clientform
6000   python-coherence
6001   python-configobj
6002   python-crypto
6003   python-cupshelpers
6004   python-elementtree
6005   python-epsilon
6006   python-evolution
6007   python-feedparser
6008   python-gdata
6009   python-gdbm
6010   python-gst0.10
6011   python-gtkglext1
6012   python-gtksourceview2
6013   python-httplib2
6014   python-louie
6015   python-mako
6016   python-markupsafe
6017   python-mechanize
6018   python-nevow
6019   python-notify
6020   python-opengl
6021   python-openssl
6022   python-pam
6023   python-pkg-resources
6024   python-pyasn1
6025   python-pysqlite2
6026   python-rdflib
6027   python-serial
6028   python-tagpy
6029   python-twisted-bin
6030   python-twisted-conch
6031   python-twisted-core
6032   python-twisted-web
6033   python-utidylib
6034   python-webkit
6035   python-xdg
6036   python-zope.interface
6037   remmina
6038   remmina-plugin-data
6039   remmina-plugin-rdp
6040   remmina-plugin-vnc
6041   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6042   rhythmbox-plugins
6043   rpm-common
6044   rpm2cpio
6045   seahorse-plugins
6046   shotwell
6047   software-center
6048   system-config-printer-udev
6049   telepathy-gabble
6050   telepathy-mission-control-5
6051   telepathy-salut
6052   tomboy
6053   totem
6054   totem-coherence
6055   totem-mozilla
6056   totem-plugins
6057   transmission-common
6058   xdg-user-dirs
6059   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6060   xserver-xephyr
6061 </p></blockquote>
6062
6063 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6064
6065 <blockquote><p>
6066   cheese
6067   ekiga
6068   eog
6069   epiphany-extensions
6070   evolution-exchange
6071   fast-user-switch-applet
6072   file-roller
6073   gcalctool
6074   gconf-editor
6075   gdm
6076   gedit
6077   gedit-common
6078   gnome-games
6079   gnome-games-data
6080   gnome-nettool
6081   gnome-system-tools
6082   gnome-themes
6083   gnuchess
6084   gucharmap
6085   guile-1.8-libs
6086   libavahi-ui0
6087   libdmx1
6088   libgalago3
6089   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6090   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6091   liblircclient0
6092   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6093   libspeexdsp1
6094   libsvga1
6095   rhythmbox
6096   seahorse
6097   sound-juicer
6098   system-config-printer
6099   totem-common
6100   transmission-gtk
6101   vinagre
6102   vino
6103 </p></blockquote>
6104
6105 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6106
6107 <blockquote><p>
6108   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6109 </p></blockquote>
6110
6111 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6112
6113 <blockquote><p>
6114 [nothing]
6115 </p></blockquote>
6116
6117 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6118
6119 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6120
6121 <blockquote><p>
6122   ksmserver
6123 </p></blockquote>
6124
6125 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6126
6127 <blockquote><p>
6128   kwin
6129   network-manager-kde
6130 </p></blockquote>
6131
6132 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6133
6134 <blockquote><p>
6135   arts
6136   dolphin
6137   freespacenotifier
6138   google-gadgets-gst
6139   google-gadgets-xul
6140   kappfinder
6141   kcalc
6142   kcharselect
6143   kde-core
6144   kde-plasma-desktop
6145   kde-standard
6146   kde-window-manager
6147   kdeartwork
6148   kdeartwork-emoticons
6149   kdeartwork-style
6150   kdeartwork-theme-icon
6151   kdebase
6152   kdebase-apps
6153   kdebase-workspace
6154   kdebase-workspace-bin
6155   kdebase-workspace-data
6156   kdeeject
6157   kdelibs
6158   kdeplasma-addons
6159   kdeutils
6160   kdewallpapers
6161   kdf
6162   kfloppy
6163   kgpg
6164   khelpcenter4
6165   kinfocenter
6166   konq-plugins-l10n
6167   konqueror-nsplugins
6168   kscreensaver
6169   kscreensaver-xsavers
6170   ktimer
6171   kwrite
6172   libgle3
6173   libkde4-ruby1.8
6174   libkonq5
6175   libkonq5-templates
6176   libnetpbm10
6177   libplasma-ruby
6178   libplasma-ruby1.8
6179   libqt4-ruby1.8
6180   marble-data
6181   marble-plugins
6182   netpbm
6183   nuvola-icon-theme
6184   plasma-dataengines-workspace
6185   plasma-desktop
6186   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
6187   plasma-runners-addons
6188   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
6189   plasma-scriptengine-python
6190   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
6191   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
6192   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
6193   plasma-scriptengines
6194   plasma-wallpapers-addons
6195   plasma-widget-folderview
6196   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6197   ruby
6198   sweeper
6199   update-notifier-kde
6200   xscreensaver-data-extra
6201   xscreensaver-gl
6202   xscreensaver-gl-extra
6203   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6204 </p></blockquote>
6205
6206 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6207
6208 <blockquote><p>
6209   ark
6210   google-gadgets-common
6211   google-gadgets-qt
6212   htdig
6213   kate
6214   kdebase-bin
6215   kdebase-data
6216   kdepasswd
6217   kfind
6218   klipper
6219   konq-plugins
6220   konqueror
6221   ksysguard
6222   ksysguardd
6223   libarchive1
6224   libcln6
6225   libeet1
6226   libeina-svn-06
6227   libggadget-1.0-0b
6228   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
6229   libgps19
6230   libkdecorations4
6231   libkephal4
6232   libkonq4
6233   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
6234   libkscreensaver5
6235   libksgrd4
6236   libksignalplotter4
6237   libkunitconversion4
6238   libkwineffects1a
6239   libmarblewidget4
6240   libntrack-qt4-1
6241   libntrack0
6242   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
6243   libplasmaclock4a
6244   libplasmagenericshell4
6245   libprocesscore4a
6246   libprocessui4a
6247   libqalculate5
6248   libqedje0a
6249   libqtruby4shared2
6250   libqzion0a
6251   libruby1.8
6252   libscim8c2a
6253   libsmokekdecore4-3
6254   libsmokekdeui4-3
6255   libsmokekfile3
6256   libsmokekhtml3
6257   libsmokekio3
6258   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
6259   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
6260   libsmokekparts3
6261   libsmokektexteditor3
6262   libsmokekutils3
6263   libsmokenepomuk3
6264   libsmokephonon3
6265   libsmokeplasma3
6266   libsmokeqtcore4-3
6267   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
6268   libsmokeqtgui4-3
6269   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
6270   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
6271   libsmokeqtscript4-3
6272   libsmokeqtsql4-3
6273   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
6274   libsmokeqttest4-3
6275   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
6276   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
6277   libsmokeqtxml4-3
6278   libsmokesolid3
6279   libsmokesoprano3
6280   libtaskmanager4a
6281   libtidy-0.99-0
6282   libweather-ion4a
6283   libxklavier16
6284   libxxf86misc1
6285   okteta
6286   oxygencursors
6287   plasma-dataengines-addons
6288   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
6289   plasma-widget-lancelot
6290   plasma-widgets-addons
6291   plasma-widgets-workspace
6292   polkit-kde-1
6293   ruby1.8
6294   systemsettings
6295   update-notifier-common
6296 </p></blockquote>
6297
6298 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
6299 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
6300 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
6301 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
6302
6303       </div>
6304       <div class="tags">
6305
6306
6307         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>.
6308
6309
6310       </div>
6311     </div>
6312     <div class="padding"></div>
6313
6314     <div class="entry">
6315       <div class="title">
6316         <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>
6317       </div>
6318       <div class="date">
6319         22nd November 2010
6320       </div>
6321       <div class="body">
6322         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
6323 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
6324 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
6325 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
6326 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
6327 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
6328 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
6329 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
6330 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
6331
6332 <p>I found
6333 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
6334 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
6335 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
6336 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
6337 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
6338 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
6339
6340 <pre>
6341 #!/bin/sh
6342
6343 # Based on
6344 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
6345
6346 set -e
6347 set -x
6348
6349 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
6350     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
6351     exit 1
6352 else
6353     host="$1"
6354 fi
6355
6356 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
6357     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
6358     exit 1
6359 fi
6360
6361 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
6362 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6363 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
6364 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
6365
6366 img=$host.img
6367 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
6368 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
6369
6370 parted $img mklabel msdos
6371 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
6372 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
6373 parted $img set 1 boot on
6374
6375 modprobe dm-mod
6376 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
6377 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
6378
6379 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
6380 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
6381 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
6382
6383 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
6384 losetup -d /dev/loop0
6385 </pre>
6386
6387 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
6388 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
6389
6390 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
6391 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
6392 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
6393 seem to work just fine.</p>
6394
6395       </div>
6396       <div class="tags">
6397
6398
6399         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>.
6400
6401
6402       </div>
6403     </div>
6404     <div class="padding"></div>
6405
6406     <div class="entry">
6407       <div class="title">
6408         <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>
6409       </div>
6410       <div class="date">
6411         20th November 2010
6412       </div>
6413       <div class="body">
6414         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
6415 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6416 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
6417 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
6418
6419 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
6420 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
6421 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
6422
6423 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6424
6425 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6426
6427 <blockquote><p>
6428   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
6429   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
6430   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
6431   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
6432   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
6433   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
6434   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
6435   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
6436   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
6437   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
6438   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6439   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6440   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
6441   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
6442   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
6443   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
6444   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6445   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
6446   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6447   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
6448   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
6449   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6450   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
6451   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
6452   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
6453   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6454   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6455   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
6456   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6457   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
6458   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
6459   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6460   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
6461   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
6462   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
6463   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
6464   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
6465   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
6466   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
6467   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
6468   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
6469   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
6470   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
6471   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
6472   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
6473   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
6474   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
6475   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
6476   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
6477   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
6478   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
6479   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
6480   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6481   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
6482   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
6483   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
6484   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
6485   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
6486   zip
6487 </p></blockquote>
6488
6489 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
6490
6491 <blockquote><p>
6492   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
6493   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
6494   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
6495   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
6496   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
6497   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
6498   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
6499   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
6500   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
6501   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
6502   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
6503   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6504   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6505   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6506   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6507   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
6508   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6509   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
6510   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
6511   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
6512   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
6513   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
6514   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6515   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
6516   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
6517   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
6518   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
6519   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
6520   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
6521 </p></blockquote>
6522
6523 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6524
6525 <blockquote><p>
6526   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6527 </p></blockquote>
6528
6529 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6530
6531 <blockquote><p>
6532 [nothing]
6533 </p></blockquote>
6534
6535 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6536
6537 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6538
6539 <blockquote><p>
6540   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
6541   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
6542   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
6543   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
6544   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
6545   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
6546   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
6547   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
6548   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
6549   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
6550   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
6551   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
6552   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
6553   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
6554   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
6555   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
6556   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
6557   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
6558   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
6559   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
6560   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
6561   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
6562   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
6563   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
6564   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
6565   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
6566   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
6567   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
6568   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
6569   ttf-sazanami-gothic
6570 </p></blockquote>
6571
6572 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6573
6574 <blockquote><p>
6575   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
6576   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
6577   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
6578   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
6579   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
6580   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
6581   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
6582   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
6583   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
6584   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
6585   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
6586   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
6587   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
6588   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
6589   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
6590   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
6591   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
6592   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
6593   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
6594   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
6595   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6596   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
6597   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
6598   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
6599   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
6600   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
6601   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
6602   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
6603   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
6604   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
6605   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
6606   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
6607   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
6608 </p></blockquote>
6609
6610 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6611
6612 <blockquote><p>
6613   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
6614   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
6615   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
6616   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
6617   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6618   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
6619   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6620 </p></blockquote>
6621
6622 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6623
6624 <blockquote><p>
6625   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
6626 </p></blockquote>
6627
6628       </div>
6629       <div class="tags">
6630
6631
6632         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>.
6633
6634
6635       </div>
6636     </div>
6637     <div class="padding"></div>
6638
6639     <div class="entry">
6640       <div class="title">
6641         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
6642       </div>
6643       <div class="date">
6644         20th November 2010
6645       </div>
6646       <div class="body">
6647         <p>Answering
6648 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
6649 call from the Gnash project</a> for
6650 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
6651 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
6652 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
6653 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
6654 releases out more often.</p>
6655
6656 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
6657 I have considered setting up a <a
6658 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
6659 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
6660 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
6661 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
6662 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
6663 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
6664 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
6665 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
6666 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
6667 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
6668 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
6669 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
6670
6671       </div>
6672       <div class="tags">
6673
6674
6675         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>.
6676
6677
6678       </div>
6679     </div>
6680     <div class="padding"></div>
6681
6682     <div class="entry">
6683       <div class="title">
6684         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
6685       </div>
6686       <div class="date">
6687          9th November 2010
6688       </div>
6689       <div class="body">
6690         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
6691
6692 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
6693 3D linked in from
6694 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
6695 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
6696
6697       </div>
6698       <div class="tags">
6699
6700
6701         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>.
6702
6703
6704       </div>
6705     </div>
6706     <div class="padding"></div>
6707
6708     <div class="entry">
6709       <div class="title">
6710         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
6711       </div>
6712       <div class="date">
6713         24th October 2010
6714       </div>
6715       <div class="body">
6716         <p>Some updates.</p>
6717
6718 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
6719 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
6720 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
6721 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
6722 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
6723 :)</p>
6724
6725 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
6726 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
6727 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
6728 It is called
6729 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
6730 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
6731 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
6732 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
6733 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
6734 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
6735
6736 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
6737 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
6738 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
6739 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
6740 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
6741 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
6742 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
6743 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
6744 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
6745 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
6746
6747       </div>
6748       <div class="tags">
6749
6750
6751         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>.
6752
6753
6754       </div>
6755     </div>
6756     <div class="padding"></div>
6757
6758     <div class="entry">
6759       <div class="title">
6760         <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>
6761       </div>
6762       <div class="date">
6763          4th September 2010
6764       </div>
6765       <div class="body">
6766         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
6767 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
6768 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
6769 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
6770 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
6771 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
6772 installed.</p>
6773
6774 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
6775 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
6776 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
6777 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
6778 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6779 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
6780 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
6781 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
6782 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
6783
6784 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
6785 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
6786 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
6787 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
6788 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
6789 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
6790 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
6791 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
6792 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
6793 pages they want to visit.</p>
6794
6795 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
6796 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
6797 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
6798 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
6799 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
6800 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
6801 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
6802 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
6803 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
6804 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
6805 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
6806
6807       </div>
6808       <div class="tags">
6809
6810
6811         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>.
6812
6813
6814       </div>
6815     </div>
6816     <div class="padding"></div>
6817
6818     <div class="entry">
6819       <div class="title">
6820         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
6821       </div>
6822       <div class="date">
6823         27th July 2010
6824       </div>
6825       <div class="body">
6826         <p>I discovered this while doing
6827 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
6828 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
6829 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
6830 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
6831 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
6832
6833 <p>An example is from todays
6834 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
6835 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
6836 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
6837 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
6838 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
6839 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
6840 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
6841
6842 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
6843
6844 <blockquote><pre>
6845 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
6846  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
6847   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
6848 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
6849  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
6850 </pre></blockquote>
6851
6852 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
6853 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
6854 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
6855 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
6856 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
6857 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
6858 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
6859 of dependency loops.</p>
6860
6861 <p>Thanks to
6862 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
6863 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
6864 dependencies
6865 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
6866 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
6867
6868 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
6869 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
6870 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
6871 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
6872 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
6873 it.</p>
6874
6875       </div>
6876       <div class="tags">
6877
6878
6879         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>.
6880
6881
6882       </div>
6883     </div>
6884     <div class="padding"></div>
6885
6886     <div class="entry">
6887       <div class="title">
6888         <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>
6889       </div>
6890       <div class="date">
6891         17th July 2010
6892       </div>
6893       <div class="body">
6894         <p>This is a
6895 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
6896 on my
6897 <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
6898 work</a> on
6899 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
6900 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
6901
6902 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
6903 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
6904 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
6905 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
6906
6907 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
6908 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
6909 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
6910
6911 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
6912
6913 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
6914 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
6915 the web.
6916
6917 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
6918 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
6919 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
6920 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
6921 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
6922 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
6923
6924 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
6925 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
6926 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
6927 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
6928 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
6929 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
6930 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
6931 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
6932 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
6933 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
6934 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
6935 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
6936 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
6937 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
6938 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
6939 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
6940
6941 <blockquote><pre>
6942 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6943   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6944   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
6945   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
6946   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
6947   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
6948   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
6949
6950 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6951   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6952   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
6953   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
6954   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
6955   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
6956 </pre></blockquote>
6957
6958 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
6959 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
6960 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
6961 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6962 also exist.</p>
6963
6964 <blockquote><pre>
6965 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6966 objectclass: top
6967 objectclass: dnsdomain
6968 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6969 dc: tjener
6970 arecord: 10.0.2.2
6971 associateddomain: tjener.intern
6972
6973 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6974 objectclass: top
6975 objectclass: dnsdomain2
6976 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6977 dc: 2
6978 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
6979 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
6980 </pre></blockquote>
6981
6982 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
6983 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
6984 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
6985 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
6986 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
6987 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
6988 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
6989 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
6990 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
6991 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
6992 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
6993 instead.</p>
6994
6995 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
6996 like this:</p>
6997
6998 <blockquote><pre>
6999 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7000   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7001   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7002   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7003   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7004   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7005
7006 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7007   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
7008 </pre></blockquote>
7009
7010 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
7011 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
7012 reverse lookups.</p>
7013
7014 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
7015 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
7016 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
7017 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
7018
7019 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
7020 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
7021 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
7022
7023 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
7024 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
7025 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
7026 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
7027 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
7028
7029 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
7030 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
7031 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
7032 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
7033 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
7034
7035 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
7036 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
7037 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
7038 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
7039 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
7040 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
7041
7042 <blockquote><pre>
7043 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
7044     SUP top
7045     AUXILIARY
7046     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
7047           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
7048           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
7049           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
7050           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
7051     ))
7052 </pre></blockquote>
7053
7054 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
7055 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
7056 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
7057 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
7058 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
7059 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
7060
7061 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
7062
7063 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
7064 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
7065 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
7066 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
7067 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
7068
7069 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
7070 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
7071 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
7072 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
7073
7074 <blockquote><pre>
7075 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
7076 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
7077 </pre></blockquote>
7078
7079 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
7080 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
7081 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
7082 search result is this entry:</p>
7083
7084 <blockquote><pre>
7085 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7086 cn: dhcp
7087 objectClass: top
7088 objectClass: dhcpServer
7089 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7090 </pre></blockquote>
7091
7092 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
7093 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
7094 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
7095 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
7096 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
7097 The search result is this entry:</p>
7098
7099 <blockquote><pre>
7100 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7101 cn: DHCP Config
7102 objectClass: top
7103 objectClass: dhcpService
7104 objectClass: dhcpOptions
7105 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7106 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
7107 dhcpStatements: authoritative
7108 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
7109 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
7110 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
7111 </pre></blockquote>
7112
7113 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
7114 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
7115 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
7116 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
7117 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
7118 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
7119 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
7120 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
7121 related computer objects.</p>
7122
7123 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
7124 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
7125 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
7126 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
7127 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
7128 like:</p>
7129
7130 <blockquote><pre>
7131 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7132 cn: hostname
7133 objectClass: top
7134 objectClass: dhcpHost
7135 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7136 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
7137 </pre></blockquote>
7138
7139 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
7140 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
7141 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
7142 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
7143 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
7144 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
7145 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
7146 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
7147 structural object class.
7148
7149 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
7150
7151 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
7152 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
7153 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
7154 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
7155 in the configuration.</p>
7156
7157 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
7158 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
7159 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
7160 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
7161 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
7162 structure.</p>
7163
7164 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
7165 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
7166
7167 <blockquote><pre>
7168 ou=services
7169   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
7170     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
7171     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7172       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7173         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7174     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7175       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7176         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7177     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
7178       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
7179 </pre></blockquote>
7180
7181 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
7182 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
7183 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
7184 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
7185
7186 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
7187 like this:</p>
7188
7189 <blockquote><pre>
7190 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7191 dc: hostname
7192 objectClass: top
7193 objectClass: dhcpHost
7194 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7195 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
7196 associateddomain: hostname.intern
7197 arecord: 10.11.12.13
7198 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7199 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
7200 </pre></blockquote>
7201
7202 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
7203 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
7204 auxiliary object class.</p>
7205
7206       </div>
7207       <div class="tags">
7208
7209
7210         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>.
7211
7212
7213       </div>
7214     </div>
7215     <div class="padding"></div>
7216
7217     <div class="entry">
7218       <div class="title">
7219         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
7220       </div>
7221       <div class="date">
7222         14th July 2010
7223       </div>
7224       <div class="body">
7225         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
7226 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
7227 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
7228 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
7229 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
7230
7231 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
7232 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
7233
7234 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
7235 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
7236 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
7237 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
7238 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
7239 to a slave DNS server.</p>
7240
7241 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
7242 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
7243 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
7244 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
7245 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
7246 seem to work.</p>
7247
7248 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
7249 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
7250 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
7251 this:</p>
7252
7253 <blockquote><pre>
7254   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7255   cn: hostname
7256   objectClass: dhcphost
7257   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7258   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
7259   associateddomain: hostname.intern
7260   arecord: 10.11.12.13
7261   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7262   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
7263   ldapconfigsound: Y
7264 </pre></blockquote>
7265
7266 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
7267 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
7268 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
7269 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
7270
7271 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
7272 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
7273 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
7274 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
7275 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
7276 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
7277 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
7278 might be a good place to put it.</p>
7279
7280 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7281 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7282
7283       </div>
7284       <div class="tags">
7285
7286
7287         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>.
7288
7289
7290       </div>
7291     </div>
7292     <div class="padding"></div>
7293
7294     <div class="entry">
7295       <div class="title">
7296         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
7297       </div>
7298       <div class="date">
7299         11th July 2010
7300       </div>
7301       <div class="body">
7302         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
7303 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
7304 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
7305 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
7306
7307 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
7308 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
7309 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
7310 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
7311 LTSP clients.</p>
7312
7313 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
7314 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
7315 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
7316
7317 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
7318 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
7319 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
7320
7321 <blockquote><pre>
7322 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
7323 #
7324 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
7325 #
7326 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
7327 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
7328 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
7329 #
7330 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
7331 # existence of attribute names.
7332 #
7333 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
7334 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
7335 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
7336 #
7337 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
7338 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
7339 #
7340 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
7341 #     SUP top
7342 #     AUXILIARY
7343 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
7344
7345 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
7346 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
7347     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
7348     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
7349         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
7350         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
7351             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
7352             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
7353             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
7354             # bass value on to clients
7355             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
7356         done
7357     done
7358 fi
7359 </pre></blockquote>
7360
7361 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
7362 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
7363 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
7364 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
7365 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
7366
7367 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7368 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7369
7370 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
7371 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
7372 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
7373 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
7374 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
7375 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
7376
7377       </div>
7378       <div class="tags">
7379
7380
7381         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>.
7382
7383
7384       </div>
7385     </div>
7386     <div class="padding"></div>
7387
7388     <div class="entry">
7389       <div class="title">
7390         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
7391       </div>
7392       <div class="date">
7393          9th July 2010
7394       </div>
7395       <div class="body">
7396         <p>Since
7397 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
7398 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
7399 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
7400 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
7401 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
7402 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
7403 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
7404 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
7405 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
7406 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
7407 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
7408 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
7409 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
7410
7411       </div>
7412       <div class="tags">
7413
7414
7415         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>.
7416
7417
7418       </div>
7419     </div>
7420     <div class="padding"></div>
7421
7422     <div class="entry">
7423       <div class="title">
7424         <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>
7425       </div>
7426       <div class="date">
7427          3rd July 2010
7428       </div>
7429       <div class="body">
7430         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
7431 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
7432 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
7433 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
7434 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
7435 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
7436 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
7437 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
7438
7439 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
7440 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
7441 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
7442 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
7443 publish the difference.</p>
7444
7445 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7446
7447 <blockquote><p>
7448   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7449   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
7450   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
7451   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7452   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
7453   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7454   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
7455   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
7456 </p></blockquote>
7457
7458 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7459
7460 <blockquote><p>
7461   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
7462   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
7463   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
7464   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
7465   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
7466   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
7467   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7468   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7469   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7470   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7471   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
7472   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
7473   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
7474   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
7475   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
7476   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7477   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
7478   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
7479   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
7480   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
7481 </p></blockquote>
7482
7483 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7484
7485 <blockquote><p>
7486   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
7487   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
7488   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7489   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7490   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
7491   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
7492   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
7493   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7494   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7495   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7496   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7497   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
7498   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
7499   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
7500   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
7501   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
7502   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
7503   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
7504   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
7505   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
7506   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
7507 </p></blockquote>
7508
7509 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7510
7511 <blockquote><p>
7512   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
7513   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
7514   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
7515 </p></blockquote>
7516
7517 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
7518 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
7519 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
7520 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
7521 the difference somewhat.
7522
7523       </div>
7524       <div class="tags">
7525
7526
7527         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>.
7528
7529
7530       </div>
7531     </div>
7532     <div class="padding"></div>
7533
7534     <div class="entry">
7535       <div class="title">
7536         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
7537       </div>
7538       <div class="date">
7539         28th June 2010
7540       </div>
7541       <div class="body">
7542         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
7543 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
7544 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
7545 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
7546 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
7547 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
7548 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
7549 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
7550 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
7551 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
7552
7553 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
7554 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
7555 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
7556 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
7557 released.</p>
7558
7559 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
7560 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
7561 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
7562 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
7563
7564 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
7565 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7566
7567 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
7568 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
7569 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
7570 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
7571 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
7572
7573       </div>
7574       <div class="tags">
7575
7576
7577         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>.
7578
7579
7580       </div>
7581     </div>
7582     <div class="padding"></div>
7583
7584     <div class="entry">
7585       <div class="title">
7586         <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>
7587       </div>
7588       <div class="date">
7589         24th June 2010
7590       </div>
7591       <div class="body">
7592         <p>A while back, I
7593 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
7594 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
7595 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
7596 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
7597
7598 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
7599 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
7600 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
7601 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
7602
7603 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
7604 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
7605 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
7606 Debian Edu.</p>
7607
7608 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
7609 the
7610 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
7611 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
7612 available today from IETF.</p>
7613
7614 <pre>
7615 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
7616 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
7617 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
7618  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
7619         NAME 'dhcpHost'
7620         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
7621 -       SUP top
7622 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
7623         MUST cn
7624         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
7625         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
7626 </pre>
7627
7628 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
7629 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
7630 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
7631
7632 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7633 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7634
7635       </div>
7636       <div class="tags">
7637
7638
7639         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>.
7640
7641
7642       </div>
7643     </div>
7644     <div class="padding"></div>
7645
7646     <div class="entry">
7647       <div class="title">
7648         <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>
7649       </div>
7650       <div class="date">
7651         16th June 2010
7652       </div>
7653       <div class="body">
7654         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
7655 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
7656 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
7657 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
7658 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
7659 this:
7660
7661 <blockquote><pre>
7662 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7663 tasksel --new-install
7664 </pre></blockquote>
7665
7666 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
7667 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
7668 any output what so ever.
7669
7670 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
7671 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
7672 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
7673 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
7674 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
7675 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
7676 code like this:
7677
7678 <blockquote><pre>
7679 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7680 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
7681 $cmd
7682 </pre></blockquote>
7683
7684 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
7685 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
7686 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
7687 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
7688 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
7689 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
7690 installation.</p>
7691
7692 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
7693 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
7694 like this.</p>
7695
7696       </div>
7697       <div class="tags">
7698
7699
7700         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>.
7701
7702
7703       </div>
7704     </div>
7705     <div class="padding"></div>
7706
7707     <div class="entry">
7708       <div class="title">
7709         <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>
7710       </div>
7711       <div class="date">
7712         13th June 2010
7713       </div>
7714       <div class="body">
7715         <p>My
7716 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
7717 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
7718 finally made the upgrade logs available from
7719 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
7720 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
7721 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
7722 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
7723
7724 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
7725 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
7726 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
7727 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
7728 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
7729 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
7730 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
7731 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
7732
7733 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
7734 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
7735 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
7736 too surprising.</p>
7737
7738 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
7739 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
7740 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
7741 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
7742 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
7743 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
7744 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
7745 continue.</p>
7746
7747 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
7748 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
7749   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
7750   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
7751   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
7752   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
7753   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
7754   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7755   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7756   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7757   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7758   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7759   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7760   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7761   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7762   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7763   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7764   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7765   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7766   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7767   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7768   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7769   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7770   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7771   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7772   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7773   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7774   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7775   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
7776   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
7777
7778 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
7779
7780 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
7781   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
7782   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
7783   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
7784   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7785   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
7786   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
7787   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
7788   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
7789   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
7790   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7791   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
7792   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7793   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
7794   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
7795   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
7796   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
7797   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
7798   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
7799   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
7800   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
7801   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
7802   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
7803   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
7804   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7805   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
7806   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
7807   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
7808   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
7809   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7810   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7811   zip</p>
7812
7813 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
7814
7815 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
7816   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
7817   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
7818   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
7819   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
7820   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
7821   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7822   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7823   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7824   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7825   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7826   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7827   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7828   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7829   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7830   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7831   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7832   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7833   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7834   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7835   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7836   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7837   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7838   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7839   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7840   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7841   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7842   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
7843
7844 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
7845 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
7846   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7847   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
7848   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
7849   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7850   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
7851   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
7852   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7853   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
7854   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
7855   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
7856   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
7857   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
7858   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
7859   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
7860   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
7861   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7862   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7863   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7864   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
7865   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7866   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
7867   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
7868   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7869   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7870   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
7871   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
7872   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
7873   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
7874   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
7875   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
7876   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
7877   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
7878   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
7879   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7880   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7881   xulrunner-1.9</p>
7882
7883
7884       </div>
7885       <div class="tags">
7886
7887
7888         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>.
7889
7890
7891       </div>
7892     </div>
7893     <div class="padding"></div>
7894
7895     <div class="entry">
7896       <div class="title">
7897         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
7898       </div>
7899       <div class="date">
7900         11th June 2010
7901       </div>
7902       <div class="body">
7903         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
7904 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
7905 have been discovered and reported in the process
7906 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
7907 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
7908 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
7909 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
7910 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
7911
7912 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
7913 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
7914 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
7915 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
7916 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
7917 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
7918
7919 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
7920 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
7921 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7922 is created.  The bug report
7923 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
7924 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
7925 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
7926 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
7927 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
7928 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
7929 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
7930 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
7931 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
7932 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
7933 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
7934 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
7935 Debian Squeeze.</p>
7936
7937 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
7938 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
7939 trick:</p>
7940
7941 <blockquote><pre>
7942 #!/bin/sh
7943 set -ex
7944
7945 if [ "$1" ] ; then
7946     desktop=$1
7947 else
7948     desktop=gnome
7949 fi
7950
7951 from=lenny
7952 to=squeeze
7953
7954 exec &lt; /dev/null
7955 unset LANG
7956 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
7957 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
7958 fuser -mv .
7959 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
7960 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7961 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
7962 #!/bin/sh
7963 exit 101
7964 EOF
7965 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
7966 exit_cleanup() {
7967     umount $tmpdir/proc
7968 }
7969 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
7970 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
7971 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
7972
7973 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
7974
7975 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
7976 # to return the correct answers.
7977 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
7978     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
7979
7980 # Include the desktop and laptop task
7981 for test in desktop laptop ; do
7982     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
7983 #!/bin/sh
7984 exit 2
7985 EOF
7986     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
7987 done
7988
7989 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7990 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
7991 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
7992 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
7993
7994 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
7995 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7996 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7997 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
7998 fuser -mv
7999 </pre></blockquote>
8000
8001 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
8002 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
8003 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
8004 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
8005 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
8006 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
8007
8008 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
8009 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
8010 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
8011 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
8012 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
8013 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
8014 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
8015
8016 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
8017 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
8018 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
8019 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
8020 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
8021 packages.</p>
8022
8023       </div>
8024       <div class="tags">
8025
8026
8027         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>.
8028
8029
8030       </div>
8031     </div>
8032     <div class="padding"></div>
8033
8034     <div class="entry">
8035       <div class="title">
8036         <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>
8037       </div>
8038       <div class="date">
8039          6th June 2010
8040       </div>
8041       <div class="body">
8042         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
8043 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
8044 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
8045 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
8046 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
8047 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
8048 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
8049
8050 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
8051 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
8052 COLUMNS):</p>
8053
8054 <blockquote><pre>
8055 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
8056 previous=N
8057 PREVLEVEL=
8058 RUNLEVEL=
8059 runlevel=S
8060 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
8061 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
8062 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
8063 </pre></blockquote>
8064
8065 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
8066 script.</p>
8067
8068 <blockquote><pre>
8069 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
8070 previous=N
8071 PREVLEVEL=N
8072 RUNLEVEL=S
8073 runlevel=S
8074 </pre></blockquote>
8075
8076 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
8077 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
8078 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
8079
8080 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
8081 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
8082 choice.</p>
8083
8084       </div>
8085       <div class="tags">
8086
8087
8088         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>.
8089
8090
8091       </div>
8092     </div>
8093     <div class="padding"></div>
8094
8095     <div class="entry">
8096       <div class="title">
8097         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
8098       </div>
8099       <div class="date">
8100          6th June 2010
8101       </div>
8102       <div class="body">
8103         <p>Via the
8104 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
8105 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
8106 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
8107 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
8108 following the standards wars of today.</p>
8109
8110       </div>
8111       <div class="tags">
8112
8113
8114         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>.
8115
8116
8117       </div>
8118     </div>
8119     <div class="padding"></div>
8120
8121     <div class="entry">
8122       <div class="title">
8123         <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>
8124       </div>
8125       <div class="date">
8126          3rd June 2010
8127       </div>
8128       <div class="body">
8129         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
8130 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
8131 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
8132 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
8133 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
8134
8135 <blockquote><pre>
8136 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
8137   vendor                    count
8138   Dell Computer Corporation     1
8139     PowerEdge 1750              1
8140   IBM                           1
8141     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
8142   Intel                         2
8143   [no-dmi-info]                 3
8144 maintainer:~#
8145 </pre></blockquote>
8146
8147 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
8148 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
8149 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
8150 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
8151 option to list the individual machines.</p>
8152
8153 <p>A larger list is
8154 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
8155 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
8156 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
8157 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
8158 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
8159 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
8160 collector.</p>
8161
8162       </div>
8163       <div class="tags">
8164
8165
8166         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>.
8167
8168
8169       </div>
8170     </div>
8171     <div class="padding"></div>
8172
8173     <div class="entry">
8174       <div class="title">
8175         <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>
8176       </div>
8177       <div class="date">
8178          1st June 2010
8179       </div>
8180       <div class="body">
8181         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
8182 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
8183 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
8184 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
8185 wait.</p>
8186
8187 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
8188 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
8189 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
8190 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
8191 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
8192 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
8193
8194 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
8195 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
8196 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
8197 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
8198 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
8199 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
8200 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
8201 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
8202
8203 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
8204
8205       </div>
8206       <div class="tags">
8207
8208
8209         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>.
8210
8211
8212       </div>
8213     </div>
8214     <div class="padding"></div>
8215
8216     <div class="entry">
8217       <div class="title">
8218         <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>
8219       </div>
8220       <div class="date">
8221         27th May 2010
8222       </div>
8223       <div class="body">
8224         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
8225 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
8226 issues are known and should be solved:
8227
8228 <p><ul>
8229
8230 <li>The wicd package seen to
8231 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
8232 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
8233 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
8234 seem to be on the case.</li>
8235
8236 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
8237 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
8238 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
8239 maintainer is on the case.</li>
8240
8241 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
8242 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
8243 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
8244 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
8245 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
8246 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
8247 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
8248 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
8249
8250 </ul></p>
8251
8252 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
8253 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
8254 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
8255 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
8256
8257 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8258 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8259 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8260 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8261
8262 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
8263
8264       </div>
8265       <div class="tags">
8266
8267
8268         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>.
8269
8270
8271       </div>
8272     </div>
8273     <div class="padding"></div>
8274
8275     <div class="entry">
8276       <div class="title">
8277         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
8278       </div>
8279       <div class="date">
8280         22nd May 2010
8281       </div>
8282       <div class="body">
8283         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
8284 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
8285 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
8286 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
8287
8288 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
8289 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
8290 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
8291 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
8292 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
8293 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
8294 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
8295 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
8296 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
8297 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
8298 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
8299 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
8300 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
8301 going to work.</p>
8302
8303 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
8304 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
8305 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
8306 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
8307 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
8308 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
8309 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
8310 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
8311 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
8312 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
8313 Edu.</p>
8314
8315 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
8316 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
8317 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
8318 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
8319 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
8320 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
8321
8322 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
8323 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
8324
8325       </div>
8326       <div class="tags">
8327
8328
8329         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>.
8330
8331
8332       </div>
8333     </div>
8334     <div class="padding"></div>
8335
8336     <div class="entry">
8337       <div class="title">
8338         <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>
8339       </div>
8340       <div class="date">
8341         14th May 2010
8342       </div>
8343       <div class="body">
8344         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
8345 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
8346 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
8347 expected, if I am to believe the
8348 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
8349 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
8350 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
8351 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
8352 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
8353 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
8354 version.</p>
8355
8356 More information about
8357 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8358 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
8359 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
8360 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
8361
8362 <blockquote><pre>
8363 CONCURRENCY=none
8364 </pre></blockquote>
8365
8366 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8367 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8368 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8369 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8370
8371       </div>
8372       <div class="tags">
8373
8374
8375         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>.
8376
8377
8378       </div>
8379     </div>
8380     <div class="padding"></div>
8381
8382     <div class="entry">
8383       <div class="title">
8384         <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>
8385       </div>
8386       <div class="date">
8387         14th May 2010
8388       </div>
8389       <div class="body">
8390         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
8391 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
8392 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
8393 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
8394 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
8395 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
8396 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
8397 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
8398
8399 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
8400 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
8401 this on the collector host:</p>
8402
8403 <blockquote><pre>
8404 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
8405 </pre></blockquote>
8406
8407 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
8408 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
8409
8410 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
8411 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
8412 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
8413 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
8414 written yet.</p>
8415
8416       </div>
8417       <div class="tags">
8418
8419
8420         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>.
8421
8422
8423       </div>
8424     </div>
8425     <div class="padding"></div>
8426
8427     <div class="entry">
8428       <div class="title">
8429         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
8430       </div>
8431       <div class="date">
8432         13th May 2010
8433       </div>
8434       <div class="body">
8435         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
8436 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
8437 has been
8438 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
8439
8440 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
8441 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
8442 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
8443 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
8444 based boot system.  Tollef is
8445 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
8446 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
8447 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
8448 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
8449 at the moment do not.</p>
8450
8451 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
8452 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
8453 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
8454 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
8455 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
8456 way forward.</p>
8457
8458 <p>In the mean time, based on the
8459 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
8460 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
8461 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
8462 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
8463 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
8464 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
8465 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
8466 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
8467
8468       </div>
8469       <div class="tags">
8470
8471
8472         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>.
8473
8474
8475       </div>
8476     </div>
8477     <div class="padding"></div>
8478
8479     <div class="entry">
8480       <div class="title">
8481         <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>
8482       </div>
8483       <div class="date">
8484          6th May 2010
8485       </div>
8486       <div class="body">
8487         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
8488 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
8489 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
8490 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
8491 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8492 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
8493 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
8494
8495 <blockquote><pre>
8496 CONCURRENCY=makefile
8497 </pre></blockquote>
8498
8499 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
8500 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
8501 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
8502 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
8503 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
8504 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
8505 make this happen.</p>
8506
8507 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
8508 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
8509 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
8510 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
8511 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
8512
8513 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
8514 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
8515 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
8516 fix the remaining issues.</p>
8517
8518 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8519 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8520 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8521 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8522
8523       </div>
8524       <div class="tags">
8525
8526
8527         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>.
8528
8529
8530       </div>
8531     </div>
8532     <div class="padding"></div>
8533
8534     <div class="entry">
8535       <div class="title">
8536         <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>
8537       </div>
8538       <div class="date">
8539         27th July 2009
8540       </div>
8541       <div class="body">
8542         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
8543 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
8544 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
8545 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
8546 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
8547 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
8548 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
8549
8550 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
8551 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
8552 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
8553
8554       </div>
8555       <div class="tags">
8556
8557
8558         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>.
8559
8560
8561       </div>
8562     </div>
8563     <div class="padding"></div>
8564
8565     <div class="entry">
8566       <div class="title">
8567         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
8568       </div>
8569       <div class="date">
8570         22nd July 2009
8571       </div>
8572       <div class="body">
8573         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
8574 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
8575 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
8576 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
8577 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
8578 the package up to date.</p>
8579
8580 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
8581 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
8582 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
8583 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
8584 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
8585 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
8586 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
8587 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
8588 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
8589 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
8590 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
8591 working on the future release.</p>
8592
8593 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
8594 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
8595
8596       </div>
8597       <div class="tags">
8598
8599
8600         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>.
8601
8602
8603       </div>
8604     </div>
8605     <div class="padding"></div>
8606
8607     <div class="entry">
8608       <div class="title">
8609         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
8610       </div>
8611       <div class="date">
8612         24th June 2009
8613       </div>
8614       <div class="body">
8615         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
8616 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
8617 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
8618 funded
8619 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
8620 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
8621 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
8622 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
8623 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
8624 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
8625
8626 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
8627 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
8628 boot:</p>
8629
8630 <ul>
8631
8632 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
8633
8634 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
8635    clock is in UTC.</li>
8636
8637 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
8638    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8639    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
8640
8641 </ul>
8642
8643 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
8644 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
8645 Villegas</a>.
8646
8647 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
8648 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
8649 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
8650 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
8651 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
8652 using this.</p>
8653
8654 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
8655 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
8656 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
8657 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
8658 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
8659 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
8660 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
8661
8662       </div>
8663       <div class="tags">
8664
8665
8666         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>.
8667
8668
8669       </div>
8670     </div>
8671     <div class="padding"></div>
8672
8673     <div class="entry">
8674       <div class="title">
8675         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
8676       </div>
8677       <div class="date">
8678         17th May 2009
8679       </div>
8680       <div class="body">
8681         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
8682 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
8683 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
8684 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
8685 dager siden kom
8686 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
8687 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
8688 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
8689 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
8690 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
8691
8692 <blockquote>
8693 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
8694 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
8695 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
8696 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
8697 </blockquote>
8698
8699 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
8700 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
8701 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
8702 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
8703 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
8704
8705 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
8706 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
8707 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
8708
8709       </div>
8710       <div class="tags">
8711
8712
8713         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
8714
8715
8716       </div>
8717     </div>
8718     <div class="padding"></div>
8719
8720     <div class="entry">
8721       <div class="title">
8722         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
8723       </div>
8724       <div class="date">
8725          7th May 2009
8726       </div>
8727       <div class="body">
8728         <p>Kom over
8729 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
8730 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
8731 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
8732 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
8733 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
8734 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
8735 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
8736
8737       </div>
8738       <div class="tags">
8739
8740
8741         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
8742
8743
8744       </div>
8745     </div>
8746     <div class="padding"></div>
8747
8748     <div class="entry">
8749       <div class="title">
8750         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
8751       </div>
8752       <div class="date">
8753          2nd May 2009
8754       </div>
8755       <div class="body">
8756         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
8757 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
8758 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
8759 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
8760 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
8761 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
8762 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
8763 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
8764 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
8765 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
8766 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
8767 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
8768 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
8769 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
8770 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
8771 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
8772 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
8773 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
8774 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
8775 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
8776
8777 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
8778 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
8779 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
8780 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
8781 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
8782 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
8783 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
8784 betydelige.</p>
8785
8786       </div>
8787       <div class="tags">
8788
8789
8790         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8791
8792
8793       </div>
8794     </div>
8795     <div class="padding"></div>
8796
8797     <div class="entry">
8798       <div class="title">
8799         <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>
8800       </div>
8801       <div class="date">
8802          2nd May 2009
8803       </div>
8804       <div class="body">
8805         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
8806 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
8807 do not yet know them.</p>
8808
8809 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
8810 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
8811 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
8812 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
8813 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
8814 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
8815 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
8816 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
8817 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
8818 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
8819 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
8820
8821 <p>The second one is
8822 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
8823 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
8824 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
8825 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
8826 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
8827 and the company behind it is running
8828 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
8829 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
8830 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
8831 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
8832 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
8833 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
8834 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
8835 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
8836
8837 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
8838 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
8839 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
8840 surrounded by today.</p>
8841
8842       </div>
8843       <div class="tags">
8844
8845
8846         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>.
8847
8848
8849       </div>
8850     </div>
8851     <div class="padding"></div>
8852
8853     <div class="entry">
8854       <div class="title">
8855         <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>
8856       </div>
8857       <div class="date">
8858         28th April 2009
8859       </div>
8860       <div class="body">
8861         <p>Julien Blache
8862 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
8863 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
8864 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
8865 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
8866 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
8867 properties.</p>
8868
8869       </div>
8870       <div class="tags">
8871
8872
8873         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>.
8874
8875
8876       </div>
8877     </div>
8878     <div class="padding"></div>
8879
8880     <div class="entry">
8881       <div class="title">
8882         <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>
8883       </div>
8884       <div class="date">
8885         30th March 2009
8886       </div>
8887       <div class="body">
8888         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
8889 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
8890 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
8891 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
8892 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
8893 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
8894 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
8895 application.</p>
8896
8897 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
8898 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
8899 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
8900 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
8901 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
8902 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
8903 blocked from doing so.</p>
8904
8905 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
8906 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
8907 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
8908 requirements change.</p>
8909
8910 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
8911 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
8912 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
8913
8914       </div>
8915       <div class="tags">
8916
8917
8918         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>.
8919
8920
8921       </div>
8922     </div>
8923     <div class="padding"></div>
8924
8925     <div class="entry">
8926       <div class="title">
8927         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
8928       </div>
8929       <div class="date">
8930         29th March 2009
8931       </div>
8932       <div class="body">
8933         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
8934 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
8935 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
8936 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
8937 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
8938 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
8939 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
8940 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
8941 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
8942 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
8943 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
8944 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
8945 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
8946 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
8947 now. :)</p>
8948
8949       </div>
8950       <div class="tags">
8951
8952
8953         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>.
8954
8955
8956       </div>
8957     </div>
8958     <div class="padding"></div>
8959
8960     <div class="entry">
8961       <div class="title">
8962         <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>
8963       </div>
8964       <div class="date">
8965         29th March 2009
8966       </div>
8967       <div class="body">
8968         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
8969 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
8970 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
8971 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
8972 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
8973 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
8974
8975 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
8976 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
8977 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
8978 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
8979 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
8980 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
8981 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
8982 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
8983 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
8984 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
8985 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
8986 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
8987 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
8988
8989 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
8990 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
8991 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
8992 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
8993
8994 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
8995 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
8996
8997 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
8998 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
8999 new IETF work group?</p>
9000
9001       </div>
9002       <div class="tags">
9003
9004
9005         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>.
9006
9007
9008       </div>
9009     </div>
9010     <div class="padding"></div>
9011
9012     <div class="entry">
9013       <div class="title">
9014         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
9015       </div>
9016       <div class="date">
9017         15th February 2009
9018       </div>
9019       <div class="body">
9020         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
9021 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
9022 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
9023 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
9024 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
9025 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
9026 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
9027 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
9028 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
9029 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
9030 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
9031 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
9032
9033       </div>
9034       <div class="tags">
9035
9036
9037         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
9038
9039
9040       </div>
9041     </div>
9042     <div class="padding"></div>
9043
9044     <div class="entry">
9045       <div class="title">
9046         <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>
9047       </div>
9048       <div class="date">
9049          7th December 2008
9050       </div>
9051       <div class="body">
9052         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
9053 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
9054 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
9055 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
9056 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
9057 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
9058 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
9059 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
9060
9061 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
9062 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
9063 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
9064 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
9065 of these cards.</p>
9066
9067       </div>
9068       <div class="tags">
9069
9070
9071         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>.
9072
9073
9074       </div>
9075     </div>
9076     <div class="padding"></div>
9077
9078     <div class="entry">
9079       <div class="title">
9080         <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>
9081       </div>
9082       <div class="date">
9083         25th November 2008
9084       </div>
9085       <div class="body">
9086         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
9087 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
9088 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
9089 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
9090 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
9091 notes are available on
9092 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
9093 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
9094 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
9095 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
9096 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
9097 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
9098 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
9099 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
9100 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
9101
9102 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
9103 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
9104
9105       </div>
9106       <div class="tags">
9107
9108
9109         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>.
9110
9111
9112       </div>
9113     </div>
9114     <div class="padding"></div>
9115
9116     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
9117     <div id="sidebar">
9118
9119
9120
9121 <h2>Archive</h2>
9122 <ul>
9123
9124 <li>2015
9125 <ul>
9126
9127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9128
9129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9130
9131 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
9132
9133 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
9134
9135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9136
9137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
9138
9139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (3)</a></li>
9140
9141 </ul></li>
9142
9143 <li>2014
9144 <ul>
9145
9146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9147
9148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
9149
9150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
9151
9152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9153
9154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
9155
9156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9157
9158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
9159
9160 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
9161
9162 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9163
9164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
9165
9166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9167
9168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
9169
9170 </ul></li>
9171
9172 <li>2013
9173 <ul>
9174
9175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
9176
9177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
9178
9179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
9180
9181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
9182
9183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9184
9185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
9186
9187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9188
9189 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
9190
9191 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9192
9193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
9194
9195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
9196
9197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9198
9199 </ul></li>
9200
9201 <li>2012
9202 <ul>
9203
9204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9205
9206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
9207
9208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
9209
9210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
9211
9212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
9213
9214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
9215
9216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
9217
9218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9219
9220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
9221
9222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
9223
9224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
9225
9226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
9227
9228 </ul></li>
9229
9230 <li>2011
9231 <ul>
9232
9233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
9234
9235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9236
9237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
9238
9239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9240
9241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9242
9243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9244
9245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9246
9247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9248
9249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
9250
9251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
9252
9253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9254
9255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
9256
9257 </ul></li>
9258
9259 <li>2010
9260 <ul>
9261
9262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9263
9264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
9265
9266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
9267
9268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
9269
9270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9271
9272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
9273
9274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
9275
9276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
9277
9278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
9279
9280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
9281
9282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
9283
9284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
9285
9286 </ul></li>
9287
9288 <li>2009
9289 <ul>
9290
9291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
9292
9293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
9294
9295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
9296
9297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
9298
9299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9300
9301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
9302
9303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
9304
9305 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
9306
9307 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
9308
9309 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
9310
9311 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9312
9313 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9314
9315 </ul></li>
9316
9317 <li>2008
9318 <ul>
9319
9320 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
9321
9322 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
9323
9324 </ul></li>
9325
9326 </ul>
9327
9328
9329
9330 <h2>Tags</h2>
9331 <ul>
9332
9333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
9334
9335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
9336
9337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
9338
9339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
9340
9341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
9342
9343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
9344
9345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
9346
9347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
9348
9349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (111)</a></li>
9350
9351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (153)</a></li>
9352
9353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
9354
9355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
9356
9357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (13)</a></li>
9358
9359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
9360
9361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (282)</a></li>
9362
9363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
9364
9365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
9366
9367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (15)</a></li>
9368
9369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
9370
9371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
9372
9373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (19)</a></li>
9374
9375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
9376
9377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (10)</a></li>
9378
9379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
9380
9381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
9382
9383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
9384
9385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
9386
9387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
9388
9389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
9390
9391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (35)</a></li>
9392
9393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (263)</a></li>
9394
9395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (176)</a></li>
9396
9397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (18)</a></li>
9398
9399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
9400
9401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (52)</a></li>
9402
9403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (86)</a></li>
9404
9405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
9406
9407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
9408
9409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
9410
9411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
9412
9413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
9414
9415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
9416
9417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
9418
9419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
9420
9421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (41)</a></li>
9422
9423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
9424
9425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
9426
9427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (47)</a></li>
9428
9429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
9430
9431  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
9432
9433  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (33)</a></li>
9434
9435  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
9436
9437  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
9438
9439  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
9440
9441  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (53)</a></li>
9442
9443  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
9444
9445  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (36)</a></li>
9446
9447 </ul>
9448
9449
9450     </div>
9451     <p style="text-align: right">
9452  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
9453 </p>
9454
9455   </body>
9456 </html>