1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8"?>
2 <rss version='
2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/
1.0/' xmlns:
atom=
"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
4 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen
</title>
5 <description></description>
6 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/
</link>
7 <atom:link href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel=
"self" type=
"application/rss+xml" />
10 <title>Hvordan vurderer regjeringen H
.264-patentutfordringen?
</title>
11 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html
</link>
12 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html
</guid>
13 <pubDate>Sun,
16 Nov
2014 10:
30:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
14 <description><p
>For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke
15 juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da
16 H
.264 ble tatt inn i statens referansekatalog over standarder. Stig
17 Hornnes i FAD tipset meg om følgende som står i oppsumeringen til
18 høringen om referansekatalogen versjon
2.0, som jeg siden ved hjelp av
19 en innsynsforespørsel fikk tak i
20 <ahref=
"http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/
200901-standardkatalog-v2?action=AttachFile
&do=get
&target=kongelig-resolusjon.pdf
">PDF-utgaven
</a
>
21 datert
2009-
06-
03 (saksnummer
200803291, saksbehandler Henrik
24 <p
>Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:
</p
>
26 <p
><blockquote
>
27 <strong
>4.4 Patentproblematikk
</strong
>
29 <p
>NUUG og Opera ser det som særlig viktig at forslagene knyttet til
30 lyd og video baserer seg på de royalty-frie standardene Vorbis, Theora
33 <p
>Kommentarene relaterer seg til at enkelte standarder er åpne, men
34 inneholder tekniske prosedyrer som det i USA (og noen andre land som
35 Japan) er gitt patentrettigheter til. I vårt tilfelle berører dette
36 spesielt standardene Mp3 og H
.264, selv om Politidirektoratet peker på
37 at det muligens kan være tilsvarende problematikk også for Theora og
38 Vorbis. Dette medfører at det i USA kan kreves royalties for bruk av
39 tekniske løsninger knyttet til standardene, et krav som også
40 håndheves. Patenter kan imidlertid bare hevdes i de landene hvor
41 patentet er gitt, så amerikanske patenter gjelder ikke andre steder
44 <p
>Spesielt for utvikling av fri programvare er patenter
45 problematisk. GPL, en
"grunnleggende
" lisens for distribusjon av fri
46 programvare, avviser at programvare kan distribueres under denne
47 lisensen hvis det inneholder referanser til patenterte rutiner som
48 utløser krav om royalties. Det er imidlertid uproblematisk å
49 distribuere fri programvareløsninger under GPL som benytter de
50 aktuelle standardene innen eller mellom land som ikke anerkjenner
51 patentene. Derfor finner vi også flere implementeringer av Mp3 og
52 H
.264 som er fri programvare, lisensiert under GPL.
</p
>
54 <p
>I Norge og EU er patentlovgivningen langt mer restriktiv enn i USA,
55 men det er også her mulig å få patentert metoder for løsning av et
56 problem som relaterer seg til databehandling. Det er AIF bekjent ikke
57 relevante patenter i EU eller Norge hva gjelder H
.264 og Mp3, men
58 muligheten for at det finnes patenter uten at det er gjort krav om
59 royalties eller at det senere vil gis slike patenter kan ikke helt
62 <p
>AIF mener det er et behov for å gi offentlige virksomheter mulighet
63 til å benytte antatt royaltyfrie åpne standarder som et likeverdig
64 alternativ eller i tillegg til de markedsledende åpne standardene.
</p
>
66 </blockquote
></p
>
68 <p
>Det ser dermed ikke ut til at de har vurdert patentspørsmålet i
69 sammenheng med opphavsrettsvilkår slik de er formulert for f.eks.
70 Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Sorenson-verktøyene,
71 der det kreves brukstillatelse for patenter som ikke er gyldige i
72 Norge for å bruke disse verktøyene til annet en personlig og ikke
73 kommersiell aktivitet når det gjelder H
.264-video. Jeg må nok lete
74 videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.
</p
>
79 <title>A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4
</title>
80 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html
</link>
81 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html
</guid>
82 <pubDate>Mon,
10 Nov
2014 13:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
83 <description><p
>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
84 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
85 democracy. But this right is under serious attack these days.
</p
>
87 <p
>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
88 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
89 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
90 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor. Such SMTP option would be
91 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
92 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
93 to the people peeking on the wire. I
94 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/
2014-October/
006493.html
">proposed
95 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October
</a
> and got a
96 lot of useful feedback and suggestions. It also became obvious to me
97 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
98 documented by Johannes Berg as early as
2006, and both
99 <a href=
"https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP
">the
100 Mailpile
</a
> and
<a href=
"http://dee.su/cables
">the Cables
</a
> systems
101 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.
</p
>
103 <p
>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
104 providing the SMTP protocol on port
25, and use email addresses
105 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion. With such addresses
106 the connections to port
25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
107 go to the correct SMTP server. To do this, one need to configure the
108 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
109 emails for this .onion domain. To learn more about Exim configuration
110 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
111 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
112 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian. Getting it to work
113 were fairly easy, and
114 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp
">the
115 source code for the Debian package
</a
> is available from github. I
116 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
117 useful approach.
</p
>
119 <p
>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
120 mail system installed (or run
<tt
>apt-get purge exim4-config
</tt
> to
121 get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
122 above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run
123 <tt
>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service
</tt
> and follow
124 the instructions to get the service up and running. Restart tor and
125 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
128 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
129 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
130 --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
131 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
133 <p
>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email
134 address with your own address to test your server. :)
</p
>
136 <p
>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
137 easier and more automatic. Especially the tor setup need more work.
138 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
139 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
140 architecture independent. It would probably also make the code easier
141 to review. The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
142 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd. It would be better if
143 no daemon and no socket is needed. I suspect it is possible to get
144 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
145 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
148 <p
>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
149 <tt
>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
</tt
> mail address, deliverable over
155 <title>First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)
</title>
156 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html
</link>
157 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html
</guid>
158 <pubDate>Mon,
27 Oct
2014 20:
40:
00 +
0100</pubDate>
159 <description><p
>I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just
161 <a href=
"https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/
2014/
10/msg00000.html
">this
162 announcement
</a
>:
</p
>
165 The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
166 Jessie
8.0+edu0~alpha0
168 Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
169 various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
170 and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
171 Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
172 roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
173 hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
174 pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
176 For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
177 installation instructions are available, including detailed
178 instructions in the manual[
1] explaining the first steps, such as
179 setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
180 for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
181 of at least
5 characters!
183 [
1]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie
">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie
</a
> &gt;
185 Would you like to give your school
's computer a longer life? Are you
186 tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
187 reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
188 the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
189 Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
191 Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
192 mostly in Germany and Norway.
194 About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
195 ===============================
197 Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[
2], is a Linux distribution based
198 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
199 configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
200 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
201 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
202 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
203 initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
204 machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
205 provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
206 centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
207 services. The desktop contains more than
60 educational software
208 packages[
3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
209 schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
212 [
2]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">http://www.skolelinux.org/
</a
> &gt;
213 [
3]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html
">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html
</a
> &gt;
215 Full release notes and manual
216 =============================
218 Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
219 and bugfixes of Debian Edu
8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
220 list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[
4] for
221 the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
222 available, see the manual translation overview[
5].
224 [
4]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features
">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features
</a
> &gt;
225 [
5]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/
">http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/
</a
> &gt;
230 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (
624 MiB) you can use
232 *
<a href=
"ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-
8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-
8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
</a
>
233 *
<a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-
8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-
8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
</a
>
234 * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-
8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
236 The SHA1SUM of this image is:
361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
238 New features for Debian Edu
8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released
2014-
10-
27
239 ===============================================================================
245 * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
250 Everything which is new in Debian Jessie
8.0, eg:
252 * Linux kernel
3.16.x
253 * Desktop environments KDE
"Plasma
" 4.11.12, GNOME
3.14, Xfce
4.10,
254 LXDE
0.5.6 and MATE
1.8 (KDE
"Plasma
" is installed by default; to
255 choose one of the others see manual.)
256 * the browsers Iceweasel
31 ESR and Chromium
38
260 * CUPS print system
1.7.5
261 * new boot framework: systemd
262 * Educational toolbox GCompris
14.07
263 * Music creator Rosegarden
14.02
264 * Image editor Gimp
2.8.14
265 * Virtual stargazer Stellarium
0.13.0
268 * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
269 * Debian Jessie includes about
42000 packages available for
271 * More information about Debian Jessie
8.0 is provided in the release
272 notes[
6] and the installation manual[
7].
274 [
6]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
</a
> &gt;
275 [
7]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
</a
> &gt;
280 * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
281 DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
282 information is corrected (Debian bug #
710362)
285 Documentation and translation updates
286 -------------------------------------
288 * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
289 Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
290 Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
295 * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
296 server takes more time.
297 * To manage printers localhost:
631 has to be used, currently www:
631
300 Regressions / known problems
301 ----------------------------
303 * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
304 exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #
765694
305 and Debian bug #
762103).
306 * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
307 #
764594). The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
308 * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
309 work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
310 Will be fixed when Debian bug #
766960 is fixed in Jessie.
312 See the status page[
8] for the complete list.
314 [
8]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie
">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie
</a
> &gt;
319 &lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
</a
> &gt;
324 The Debian Project was founded in
1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
325 free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
326 the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
327 volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
328 maintain Debian software. Available in
70 languages, and supporting a
329 huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
333 For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[
9] or send
334 mail to press@debian.org.
336 [
9]
&lt;URL:
<a href=
"http://www.debian.org/
">http://www.debian.org/
</a
> &gt;
342 <title>I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic
</title>
343 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html
</link>
344 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html
</guid>
345 <pubDate>Thu,
23 Oct
2014 23:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
346 <description><p
>I spent last weekend at
<a href=
"http://www.makercon.no/
">Makercon
347 Nordic
</a
>, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and
348 the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the
349 Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we
350 had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in
351 a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the
352 regular video equipment for NUUG, with a
353 <a href=
"http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/
">dvswitch
</a
>, a
354 camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides
357 <p
>Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the
358 around
180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is
359 <a href=
"https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/
">now becoming
360 public
</a
> on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license
361 NUUG always use on our recordings, which is
362 <a href=
"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0/no/
">Creative
363 Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår
3.0 Norge
</a
>. Many great
364 talks available. Check it out! :)
</p
>
369 <title>listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software
</title>
370 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html
</link>
371 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html
</guid>
372 <pubDate>Wed,
22 Oct
2014 20:
00:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
373 <description><p
>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
374 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
375 operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
376 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
377 and various options for each email address. This take a while for
378 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
379 job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative,
380 <a href=
"http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin
">the
381 listadmin program
</a
>. It allow you to check lists for new messages
382 to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two
383 lists I recently took over:
</p
>
385 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
386 % time listadmin xiph
387 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
388 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
394 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
396 <p
>In
1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
397 there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I
398 currently moderate
68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
399 minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
400 ago, there were
400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me
401 less than
15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
404 <p
>If you install
405 <a href=
"https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin
">the listadmin
406 package
</a
> from Debian and create a file
<tt
>~/.listadmin.ini
</tt
>
407 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:
</p
>
409 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
410 username username@example.org
413 discard_if_reason
"Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list.
"
416 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
417 mailman-list@lists.example.com
420 other-list@otherserver.example.org
421 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
423 <p
>There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to
424 learn the details.
</p
>
426 <p
>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
427 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
428 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
429 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:
</p
>
431 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
432 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=
0 listadmin
433 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
435 <p
>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
436 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
437 initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only
438 lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it
439 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
442 <p
>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of
68
443 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
444 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
445 time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free
448 <p
>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
449 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
450 <b
><a href=
"bitcoin:
15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog
">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a
></b
>.
</p
>
452 <p
>Update
2014-
10-
27: Added missing
'username
' statement in
453 configuration example. Also, I
've been told that the
454 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=
0 setting do not work for everyone. Not
460 <title>Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation
</title>
461 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html
</link>
462 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html
</guid>
463 <pubDate>Fri,
17 Oct
2014 14:
10:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
464 <description><p
>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
465 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
466 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
467 Normally something more is needed. But thanks to
468 <a href=
"https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html
">my isenkram
469 package
</a
> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
470 to do this using simple preseeding.
</p
>
472 <p
>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
473 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
474 the kernel modules for the hardware). (It can also install user space
475 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
476 of this story.)
</p
>
478 <p
>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
479 values are needed. First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
480 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
481 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system. This is done by
482 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
483 isenkram-cli package. The package name is next passed to debootstrap
484 for installation. With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
485 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
486 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
487 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.
</p
>
489 <p
>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
490 most firmware unfortunately is non-free. This is done by preseeding
491 the apt-mirror-setup step. This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
492 hardware it is the only option in Debian.
</p
>
494 <p
>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
495 firmware installed automatically by the installer:
</p
>
497 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
498 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
499 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
500 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
502 <p
>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
503 both firmware and user space packages when using this method. It also
504 do not work well, so use version
0.15 or later. Installing both
505 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
506 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
507 and one for user space programs. The firmware task is enabled by
508 default, while the one for user space programs is not. This split is
509 implemented in the package currently in unstable.
</p
>
511 <p
>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
512 this recipe work for you. :)
</p
>
514 <p
>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work. First and
515 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
516 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/. So the
517 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find. First there
518 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):
</p
>
520 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
521 Task: isenkram-packages
523 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
524 Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
526 Test-new-install: show show
528 Packages: for-current-hardware
530 Task: isenkram-firmware
532 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
533 Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
534 packages are proposed.
535 Test-new-install: mark show
537 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
538 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
540 <p
>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
541 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
542 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/. The scripts use other scripts to get a
543 list of packages to install. The for-current-hardware-firmware script
544 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
546 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
551 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
552 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
554 <p
>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
555 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)
</p
>
557 <p
>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
558 installed, run
<tt
>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
559 --new-install
</tt
> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
562 <p
><a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/
">Debian Edu
</a
> will be
563 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
564 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.
</p
>
569 <title>Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo
</title>
570 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html
</link>
571 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html
</guid>
572 <pubDate>Sat,
4 Oct
2014 15:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
573 <description><p
>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen. Above the
574 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
575 with Linux kernel
3.2.0-
23 (ie probably version
12.04 LTS) was stuck
576 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:
</p
>
578 <p align=
"center
"><img width=
"70%
" src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2014-
10-
04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg
"></p
>
580 <p
>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
581 about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what
582 <a href=
"http://revealingerrors.com/
">errors can reveal
</a
>.
</p
>
587 <title>New lsdvd release version
0.17 is ready
</title>
588 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html
</link>
589 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html
</guid>
590 <pubDate>Sat,
4 Oct
2014 08:
40:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
591 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/
">lsdvd project
</a
>
592 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
593 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
594 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
597 <p
>I just wrapped up
598 <a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/
32896061/
">a
599 new lsdvd release
</a
>, available in git or from
600 <a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/
">the
601 download page
</a
>. This is the changelog dated
2014-
10-
03 for version
606 <li
>Ignore
'phantom
' audio, subtitle tracks
</li
>
607 <li
>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
608 non-existant, to work around additional copy protection
</li
>
609 <li
>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles
</li
>
610 <li
>Fix pallete display of first entry
</li
>
611 <li
>Fix include orders
</li
>
612 <li
>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway
</li
>
613 <li
>Fix the chapter count
</li
>
614 <li
>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
615 the palette size is the same.
</li
>
616 <li
>Fix array printing.
</li
>
617 <li
>Correct subsecond calculations.
</li
>
618 <li
>Add sector information to the output format.
</li
>
619 <li
>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
620 with more GCC compiler warnings.
</li
>
624 <p
>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
625 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
626 project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)
</p
>
631 <title>How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer
</title>
632 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html
</link>
633 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html
</guid>
634 <pubDate>Fri,
26 Sep
2014 12:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
635 <description><p
>The
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
636 project
</a
> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
637 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
638 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
639 boot of both clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
640 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
641 to mention here). We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
642 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
643 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
645 <a href=
"https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie
">current
646 status
</a
> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
647 work left. Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
648 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway. Here is a
649 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.
</p
>
651 <p
>First, download the test ISO via
652 <a href=
"ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-
1.iso
">ftp
</a
>,
653 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-
1.iso
">http
</a
>
655 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-
1.iso).
656 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
657 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
658 install with some tweaking.
</p
>
660 <p
>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
661 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run
</p
>
663 <p
><blockquote
><pre
>
664 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
665 </pre
></blockquote
></p
>
667 <p
>and add
'exit
0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
668 optimization. Return to the installation, select the profile you want
669 and continue. Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
670 due to a known bug in eatmydata.
</p
>
672 <p
>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
673 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be. All my
674 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
677 <p
>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
678 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
679 education-desktop-XXX metapackage. XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
680 or mate. If you want several desktop options, install more than one
681 metapackage. Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
682 graphical login screen. This workaround should no longer be needed
683 once the education-tasks package version
1.801 enter testing in two
686 <p
>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
687 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
688 update the debian-cd git repository. The eatmydata, grub and desktop
689 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
690 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again. Well the
691 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled. The proper fix
692 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
693 provided in bug
<a href=
"https://bugs.debian.org/
702711">#
702711</a
>.
694 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.
</p
>
696 <p
>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
697 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
698 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.
</p
>
703 <title>Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool
</title>
704 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html
</link>
705 <guid isPermaLink=
"true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html
</guid>
706 <pubDate>Thu,
25 Sep
2014 11:
20:
00 +
0200</pubDate>
707 <description><p
>I use the
<a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/
">lsdvd tool
</a
>
708 to handle my fairly large DVD collection. It is a nice command line
709 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
710 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format. But lsdvd have not seen
711 any new development since
2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
712 its use with some DVDs. Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
713 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
714 project, without any reply. But I use it regularly and would like to
715 get
<a href=
"https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd
">an updated version
716 into Debian
</a
>. So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
717 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
718 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
719 over. And yesterday, I became project admin.
</p
>
721 <p
>I
've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
722 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
723 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
724 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
725 I
've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
726 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too. If you got
727 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
728 <a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/
">the git source
</a
> and join
729 <a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/
">the project mailing
730 list
</a
>. :)
</p
>