blog/tags/debian/index.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Entries Tagged debian</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9     <link rel="alternate" title="RSS Feed" href="debian.rss" type="application/rss+xml" />
  10   </head>
  11   <body>
  12     <div class="title">
  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/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         30th August 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>In April we
  32 <a href="Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook">started
  33 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
  34 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
  35 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
  36 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
  37 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
  38 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
  39 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
  40 contributing using
  41 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
  42 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
  43 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
  44 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
  45 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
  46 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
  47 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
  48
  49 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available in paper as well as
  50 electronic form.</p>
  51
  52       </div>
  53       <div class="tags">
  54
  55
  56         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>.
  57
  58
  59       </div>
  60     </div>
  61     <div class="padding"></div>
  62
  63     <div class="entry">
  64       <div class="title">
  65         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
  66       </div>
  67       <div class="date">
  68         11th August 2016
  69       </div>
  70       <div class="body">
  71         <p>This summer, I read a great article
  72 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
  73 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
  74 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
  75 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
  76 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
  77 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
  78 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
  79 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
  80 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
  81 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
  82 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
  83 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
  84
  85 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
  86 get the system into Debian.  I
  87 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
  88 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
  89 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
  90 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
  91 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
  92 profiling information included in the source package.
  93 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
  94
  95 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
  96 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
  97
  98 <p><blockquote><pre>
  99 coz run --- program-to-run
 100 </pre></blockquote></p>
 101
 102 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
 103 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
 104 most, use a web browser and either point it to
 105 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
 106 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
 107 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
 108 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
 109 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
 110 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
 111 targeted experiments.</p>
 112
 113 <p>A video published by ACM
 114 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
 115 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
 116 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
 117 titled
 118 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
 119 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
 120
 121 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
 122 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
 123 because it uses a
 124 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
 125 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
 126 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
 127 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
 128
 129 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
 130 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
 131 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
 132 C++ libraries.</p>
 133
 134       </div>
 135       <div class="tags">
 136
 137
 138         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 139
 140
 141       </div>
 142     </div>
 143     <div class="padding"></div>
 144
 145     <div class="entry">
 146       <div class="title">
 147         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
 148       </div>
 149       <div class="date">
 150          7th July 2016
 151       </div>
 152       <div class="body">
 153         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
 154 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
 155 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
 156 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
 157 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
 158 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
 159 microphone The initial idea had been to just
 160 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
 161 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
 162 until a few days ago.</p>
 163
 164 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
 165 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
 166 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
 167 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
 168 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
 169 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
 170 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
 171
 172 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
 173 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
 174 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
 175 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
 176 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
 177 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
 178 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
 179 him.</p>
 180
 181 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
 182 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
 183 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
 184 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
 185 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
 186 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
 187 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
 188 devices it would work for.</p>
 189
 190 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
 191 followed some instructions
 192 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
 193 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
 194 machine with Debian testing:</p>
 195
 196 <p><pre>
 197 adb reboot-bootloader
 198 fastboot oem rebootRUU
 199 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
 200 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
 201 fastboot reboot
 202 </pre></p>
 203
 204 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
 205 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
 206 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
 207 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
 208 too.</p>
 209
 210 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
 211 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
 212 like this:</p>
 213
 214 <p><pre>
 215 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
 216 </pre>
 217
 218 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
 219 this:</p>
 220
 221 <p><pre>
 222 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
 223 </pre></p>
 224
 225 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
 226 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
 227 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
 228 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
 229 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
 230
 231       </div>
 232       <div class="tags">
 233
 234
 235         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 236
 237
 238       </div>
 239     </div>
 240     <div class="padding"></div>
 241
 242     <div class="entry">
 243       <div class="title">
 244         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
 245       </div>
 246       <div class="date">
 247          3rd July 2016
 248       </div>
 249       <div class="body">
 250         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
 251 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
 252 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
 253 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
 254 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
 255 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
 256 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
 257 Github source, compared it to the source in
 258 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
 259 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
 260 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
 261 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
 262 the recipe how I did it.</p>
 263
 264 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
 265
 266 <pre>
 267 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
 268 </pre>
 269
 270 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
 271 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
 272
 273 <pre>
 274 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
 275 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
 276 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
 277 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
 278 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
 279          });
 280      });
 281
 282 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
 283 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
 284 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
 285 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
 286      var messageReceiver;
 287      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
 288          if (messageReceiver) {
 289 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
 290 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
 291 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
 292 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 293  ;(function() {
 294      'use strict';
 295 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
 296 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
 297
 298      window.extension = window.extension || {};
 299
 300 EOF
 301 </pre>
 302
 303 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
 304 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
 305 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
 306 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
 307
 308 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
 309 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
 310
 311 <pre>
 312 #!/bin/sh
 313 cd $(dirname $0)
 314 mkdir -p userdata
 315 exec chromium \
 316   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
 317   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
 318 </pre>
 319
 320 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
 321 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
 322 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
 323 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
 324 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
 325
 326 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
 327 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
 328 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
 329 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
 330 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
 331 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
 332 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
 333 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
 334 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
 335 Signal from my laptop.
 336
 337 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
 338 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
 339 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
 340 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
 341 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
 342 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
 343 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
 344 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
 345 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
 346 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
 347 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
 348 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
 349
 350       </div>
 351       <div class="tags">
 352
 353
 354         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 355
 356
 357       </div>
 358     </div>
 359     <div class="padding"></div>
 360
 361     <div class="entry">
 362       <div class="title">
 363         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
 364       </div>
 365       <div class="date">
 366          6th June 2016
 367       </div>
 368       <div class="body">
 369         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
 370 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
 371 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
 372 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
 373 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
 374 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
 375 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
 376 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
 377 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
 378
 379 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
 380 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
 381 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
 382 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
 383 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
 384 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
 385 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
 386
 387 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
 388 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
 389 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
 390 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
 391 toten and parole.</p>
 392
 393 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
 394 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
 395 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
 396 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
 397 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
 398 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
 399 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
 400 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
 401 formats.</p>
 402
 403       </div>
 404       <div class="tags">
 405
 406
 407         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>.
 408
 409
 410       </div>
 411     </div>
 412     <div class="padding"></div>
 413
 414     <div class="entry">
 415       <div class="title">
 416         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
 417       </div>
 418       <div class="date">
 419          5th June 2016
 420       </div>
 421       <div class="body">
 422         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
 423 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
 424 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
 425 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
 426 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
 427 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
 428 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
 429 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
 430 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
 431 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
 432 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
 433 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
 434 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
 435 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
 436 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
 437 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
 438 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
 439 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
 440 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
 441 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
 442
 443 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
 444 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
 445 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
 446 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
 447 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
 448 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
 449 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
 450 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
 451 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
 452 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
 453 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
 454 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
 455 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
 456 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
 457
 458 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
 459 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
 460 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
 461 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
 462 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
 463 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
 464 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
 465 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
 466
 467 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
 468 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
 469 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
 470 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
 471 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
 472 information is collected from
 473 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
 474 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
 475 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
 476 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
 477 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
 478 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
 479 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
 480 type (preferably
 481 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
 482 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
 483 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
 484 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
 485
 486 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
 487 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
 488 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
 489
 490 <p><blockquote><pre>
 491 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 492 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
 493   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
 494     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
 495     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
 496     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
 497   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
 498 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
 499 </pre></blockquote></p>
 500
 501 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
 502 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
 503 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
 504 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
 505
 506 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
 507 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
 508 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
 509
 510 <p><blockquote><pre>
 511 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
 512 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
 513 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
 514 %
 515 </pre></blockquote></p>
 516
 517 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
 518 MimeType= line.</p>
 519
 520 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
 521 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
 522 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
 523 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
 524 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
 525 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
 526 fixed. :)</p>
 527
 528       </div>
 529       <div class="tags">
 530
 531
 532         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>.
 533
 534
 535       </div>
 536     </div>
 537     <div class="padding"></div>
 538
 539     <div class="entry">
 540       <div class="title">
 541         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
 542       </div>
 543       <div class="date">
 544         25th May 2016
 545       </div>
 546       <div class="body">
 547         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
 548 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
 549 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
 550 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
 551 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
 552 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
 553 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
 554 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
 555 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
 556 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
 557 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
 558 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
 559
 560 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
 561 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
 562 is going away and is generally being replaced by
 563 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
 564 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
 565 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
 566 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
 567 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
 568 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
 569 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
 570 and see if it is recognised.</p>
 571
 572 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
 573 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
 574 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
 575
 576 <p><blockquote><pre>
 577 % isenkram-lookup
 578 bluez
 579 cheese
 580 fprintd
 581 fprintd-demo
 582 gkrellm-thinkbat
 583 hdapsd
 584 libpam-fprintd
 585 pidgin-blinklight
 586 thinkfan
 587 tleds
 588 tp-smapi-dkms
 589 tp-smapi-source
 590 tpb
 591 %p
 592 </pre></blockquote></p>
 593
 594 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
 595 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
 596 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 597 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
 598 See
 599 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
 600 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
 601
 602       </div>
 603       <div class="tags">
 604
 605
 606         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>.
 607
 608
 609       </div>
 610     </div>
 611     <div class="padding"></div>
 612
 613     <div class="entry">
 614       <div class="title">
 615         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
 616       </div>
 617       <div class="date">
 618         23rd May 2016
 619       </div>
 620       <div class="body">
 621         <p>Yesterday I updated the
 622 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
 623 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
 624 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
 625 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
 626 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
 627 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
 628 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
 629 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
 630 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
 631 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
 632
 633 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
 634 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
 635 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
 636 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
 637 capacity.</p>
 638
 639 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
 640
 641 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
 642 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
 643 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
 644 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
 645
 646 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
 647
 648 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
 649 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
 650 shrinking. :(</p>
 651
 652 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
 653 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
 654 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
 655 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
 656 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
 657 machine.</p>
 658
 659 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
 660 check out the
 661 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
 662 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
 663 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
 664 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 665 Patches are very welcome.</p>
 666
 667 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 668 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 669 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 670
 671       </div>
 672       <div class="tags">
 673
 674
 675         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>.
 676
 677
 678       </div>
 679     </div>
 680     <div class="padding"></div>
 681
 682     <div class="entry">
 683       <div class="title">
 684         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
 685       </div>
 686       <div class="date">
 687         12th May 2016
 688       </div>
 689       <div class="body">
 690         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
 691 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
 692 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
 693 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
 694 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
 695 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 696 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
 697 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
 698 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
 699 great if you could help out with
 700 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
 701 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
 702
 703       </div>
 704       <div class="tags">
 705
 706
 707         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>.
 708
 709
 710       </div>
 711     </div>
 712     <div class="padding"></div>
 713
 714     <div class="entry">
 715       <div class="title">
 716         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
 717       </div>
 718       <div class="date">
 719          8th May 2016
 720       </div>
 721       <div class="body">
 722         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
 723 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
 724
 725 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
 726 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
 727 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
 728 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
 729 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
 730 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
 731 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
 732 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
 733 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
 734 players.</p>
 735
 736 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
 737 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
 738 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
 739 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
 740 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
 741 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
 742 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
 743 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
 744 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
 745 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
 746 support most file formats.</p>
 747
 748 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
 749 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
 750 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
 751 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
 752 listed first in the table.</p>
 753
 754 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
 755 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
 756 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
 757 support?</p>
 758
 759       </div>
 760       <div class="tags">
 761
 762
 763         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>.
 764
 765
 766       </div>
 767     </div>
 768     <div class="padding"></div>
 769
 770     <div class="entry">
 771       <div class="title">
 772         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
 773       </div>
 774       <div class="date">
 775          4th May 2016
 776       </div>
 777       <div class="body">
 778         A friend of mine made me aware of
 779 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
 780 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
 781 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
 782
 783 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
 784 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
 785 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
 786 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
 787 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
 788 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
 789 production started.</p>
 790
 791 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
 792 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
 793 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
 794
 795       </div>
 796       <div class="tags">
 797
 798
 799         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>.
 800
 801
 802       </div>
 803     </div>
 804     <div class="padding"></div>
 805
 806     <div class="entry">
 807       <div class="title">
 808         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
 809       </div>
 810       <div class="date">
 811         10th April 2016
 812       </div>
 813       <div class="body">
 814         <p>During this weekends
 815 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
 816 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
 817 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
 818 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
 819 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
 820 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
 821 contributing using
 822 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
 823 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
 824 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
 825 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
 826 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
 827 contributors</a>.</p>
 828
 829 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
 830 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
 831 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
 832 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
 833 available for many more languages.</p>
 834
 835       </div>
 836       <div class="tags">
 837
 838
 839         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>.
 840
 841
 842       </div>
 843     </div>
 844     <div class="padding"></div>
 845
 846     <div class="entry">
 847       <div class="title">
 848         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
 849       </div>
 850       <div class="date">
 851          7th April 2016
 852       </div>
 853       <div class="body">
 854         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
 855 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
 856 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
 857 But I might be wrong.</p>
 858
 859 <p>According to
 860 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
 861 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
 862 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
 863 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
 864 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
 865 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
 866 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
 867 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
 868 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
 869 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
 870
 871 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
 872 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
 873 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
 874 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
 875 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
 876 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
 877 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
 878 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
 879 team status page</a>, and
 880 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
 881 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
 882
 883 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
 884 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
 885 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
 886 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
 887 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
 888 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
 889 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
 890 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
 891 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
 892 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
 893 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
 894 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
 895
 896       </div>
 897       <div class="tags">
 898
 899
 900         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>.
 901
 902
 903       </div>
 904     </div>
 905     <div class="padding"></div>
 906
 907     <div class="entry">
 908       <div class="title">
 909         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
 910       </div>
 911       <div class="date">
 912         23rd March 2016
 913       </div>
 914       <div class="body">
 915         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
 916 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
 917 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
 918 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
 919 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
 920 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
 921 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
 922 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
 923
 924 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
 925 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
 926 and lifetime prediction by running:
 927
 928 <p><pre>
 929 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
 930 </pre></p>
 931
 932 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
 933
 934 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
 935 entry yet):</p>
 936
 937 <p><pre>
 938 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
 939 </pre></p>
 940
 941 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
 942 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
 943 few years of data.</p>
 944
 945 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
 946 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
 947 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
 948 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
 949 know.  The issue is reported as
 950 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
 951 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
 952 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
 953 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
 954 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
 955
 956 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
 957 check out the
 958 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
 959 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
 960 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
 961 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
 962 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
 963
 964       </div>
 965       <div class="tags">
 966
 967
 968         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>.
 969
 970
 971       </div>
 972     </div>
 973     <div class="padding"></div>
 974
 975     <div class="entry">
 976       <div class="title">
 977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
 978       </div>
 979       <div class="date">
 980         15th March 2016
 981       </div>
 982       <div class="body">
 983         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
 984 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
 985 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
 986 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
 987 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
 988 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
 989 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
 990 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
 991 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
 992 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
 993 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
 994
 995 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
 996 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
 997 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
 998 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
 999 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
1000 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
1001 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
1002 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
1003 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
1004 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
1005 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
1006
1007 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
1008
1009 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
1010 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
1011 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
1012 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
1013 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
1014 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
1015
1016 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
1017 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
1018 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
1019 and graphing.</p>
1020
1021 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
1022 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
1023 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
1024 on
1025 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1026 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
1027
1028       </div>
1029       <div class="tags">
1030
1031
1032         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>.
1033
1034
1035       </div>
1036     </div>
1037     <div class="padding"></div>
1038
1039     <div class="entry">
1040       <div class="title">
1041         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
1042       </div>
1043       <div class="date">
1044         19th February 2016
1045       </div>
1046       <div class="body">
1047         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
1048 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
1049 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
1050 the code in the package in question, preferably in
1051 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
1052 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
1053
1054 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
1055 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
1056 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
1057 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
1058 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
1059 out what was wrong with
1060 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
1061 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
1062 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
1063 semi-automatically.</p>
1064
1065 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
1066 file based on the code in the source package,
1067 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
1068 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
1069 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
1070 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
1071 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
1072 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
1073 option in
1074 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
1075 blog posts from 2014</a>.
1076
1077 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
1078
1079 <p><pre>
1080 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
1081 </pre></p>
1082
1083 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
1084 this might not be the best option.</p>
1085
1086 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
1087 this approach in
1088 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
1089 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
1090 dpkg-copyright' option:
1091
1092 <p><pre>
1093 cme update dpkg-copyright
1094 </pre></p>
1095
1096 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
1097 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
1098
1099 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
1100 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
1101 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
1102 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
1103 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
1104 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
1105 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
1106 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
1107 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
1108 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
1109
1110 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
1111 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
1112 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
1113 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
1114
1115 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
1116 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
1117 planet.debian.org.</p>
1118
1119 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1120 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1121 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1122
1123 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
1124 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
1125
1126 <p><pre>
1127 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
1128   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
1129 </pre></p>
1130
1131 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
1132 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
1133 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
1134 with my packages in the future.</p>
1135
1136 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
1137 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
1138 command line.</p>
1139
1140       </div>
1141       <div class="tags">
1142
1143
1144         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>.
1145
1146
1147       </div>
1148     </div>
1149     <div class="padding"></div>
1150
1151     <div class="entry">
1152       <div class="title">
1153         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
1154       </div>
1155       <div class="date">
1156          4th February 2016
1157       </div>
1158       <div class="body">
1159         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
1160 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
1161 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
1162 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
1163 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
1164 about. :)</p>
1165
1166 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
1167 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
1168 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
1169 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
1170 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
1171 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
1172
1173 <blockquote><pre>
1174 % apt install appstream
1175 [...]
1176 % apt update
1177 [...]
1178 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
1179   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
1180 firmware-qlogic
1181 %
1182 </pre></blockquote>
1183
1184 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
1185 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
1186 a way appstream can use.</p>
1187
1188 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
1189 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
1190 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
1191 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
1192 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
1193 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
1194
1195 <blockquote><pre>
1196 % apt install appstream
1197 [...]
1198 % apt update
1199 [...]
1200 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
1201   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
1202 bkchem
1203 phototonic
1204 inkscape
1205 shutter
1206 tetzle
1207 geeqie
1208 xia
1209 pinta
1210 gthumb
1211 karbon
1212 comix
1213 mirage
1214 viewnior
1215 postr
1216 ristretto
1217 kolourpaint4
1218 eog
1219 eom
1220 gimagereader
1221 midori
1222 %
1223 </pre></blockquote>
1224
1225 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
1226 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
1227
1228       </div>
1229       <div class="tags">
1230
1231
1232         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>.
1233
1234
1235       </div>
1236     </div>
1237     <div class="padding"></div>
1238
1239     <div class="entry">
1240       <div class="title">
1241         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
1242       </div>
1243       <div class="date">
1244         24th January 2016
1245       </div>
1246       <div class="body">
1247         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
1248 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
1249 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
1250 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
1251 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
1252 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
1253 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
1254 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
1255 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
1256 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
1257 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
1258 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
1259 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
1260 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
1261 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
1262 entities.</p>
1263
1264 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
1265
1266 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
1267 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
1268 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
1269 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
1270 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
1271 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
1272 tool to do so is called
1273 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
1274 discovered it when I read
1275 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
1276 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
1277 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
1278 The python program was in Debian, but
1279 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
1280 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
1281 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
1282 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
1283 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
1284 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
1285 are now included
1286 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
1287
1288 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
1289 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
1290 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
1291 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
1292 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
1293 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
1294 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
1295 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
1296 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
1297 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
1298 about yourself with the services.</p>
1299
1300 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
1301 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
1302 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
1303 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
1304 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
1305 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
1306 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
1307 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
1308 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
1309 things.  A similar technique have been
1310 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
1311 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
1312 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
1313 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
1314 public.</p>
1315
1316 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
1317 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
1318 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
1319 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
1320
1321 <p>(I have uploaded
1322 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
1323 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
1324 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
1325
1326       </div>
1327       <div class="tags">
1328
1329
1330         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1331
1332
1333       </div>
1334     </div>
1335     <div class="padding"></div>
1336
1337     <div class="entry">
1338       <div class="title">
1339         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
1340       </div>
1341       <div class="date">
1342         15th January 2016
1343       </div>
1344       <div class="body">
1345         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
1346 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
1347 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
1348 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
1349 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
1350 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
1351 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
1352 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
1353 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
1354 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
1355 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
1356 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
1357 was not the first to propose this, as the
1358 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
1359 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
1360 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
1361 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
1362
1363 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
1364 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
1365 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
1366 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
1367 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
1368
1369 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
1370 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
1371 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
1372 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
1373 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
1374 done in /etc/.</p>
1375
1376 <blockquote><pre>
1377 apt install apt-transport-tor
1378 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
1379 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
1380 </pre></blockquote>
1381
1382 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
1383 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
1384 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
1385 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
1386
1387 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
1388 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
1389 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
1390 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
1391 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
1392 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
1393
1394 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
1395 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
1396 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
1397 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
1398 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
1399
1400 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
1401 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
1402 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
1403 system.</p>
1404
1405       </div>
1406       <div class="tags">
1407
1408
1409         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>.
1410
1411
1412       </div>
1413     </div>
1414     <div class="padding"></div>
1415
1416     <div class="entry">
1417       <div class="title">
1418         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
1419       </div>
1420       <div class="date">
1421         23rd December 2015
1422       </div>
1423       <div class="body">
1424         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
1425 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
1426 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
1427 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
1428 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
1429 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
1430
1431 <p>A few days I came across
1432 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
1433 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
1434 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
1435 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
1436 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
1437 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
1438 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
1439 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
1440 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
1441 discovered the developer
1442 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
1443 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
1444 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
1445 archive.</p>
1446
1447 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
1448 it into Debian, where it currently
1449 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
1450 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
1451
1452 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
1453 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
1454 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
1455 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
1456 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
1457 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
1458 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
1459 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
1460 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
1461 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
1462 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
1463 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
1464
1465 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
1466 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
1467 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
1468 package show up in unstable.</p>
1469
1470       </div>
1471       <div class="tags">
1472
1473
1474         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1475
1476
1477       </div>
1478     </div>
1479     <div class="padding"></div>
1480
1481     <div class="entry">
1482       <div class="title">
1483         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
1484       </div>
1485       <div class="date">
1486         20th December 2015
1487       </div>
1488       <div class="body">
1489         <p>Around three years ago, I created
1490 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
1491 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
1492 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
1493 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
1494 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
1495 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
1496 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
1497 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
1498 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
1499 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
1500 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
1501 with.</p>
1502
1503 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
1504 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
1505 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
1506 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
1507 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
1508 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
1509 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1510 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
1511 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
1512 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
1513 Debian version of appstream.</p>
1514
1515 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
1516 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
1517 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
1518 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
1519 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
1520 how do add the required
1521 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
1522 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
1523 this content:</p>
1524
1525 <blockquote><pre>
1526 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1527 &lt;component&gt;
1528   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
1529   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
1530   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
1531   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
1532   &lt;description&gt;
1533     &lt;p&gt;
1534       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
1535       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
1536       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
1537       launcher.
1538     &lt;/p&gt;
1539   &lt;/description&gt;
1540   &lt;provides&gt;
1541     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
1542   &lt;/provides&gt;
1543 &lt;/component&gt;
1544 </pre></blockquote>
1545
1546 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
1547 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
1548 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
1549 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
1550 0202.</p>
1551
1552 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
1553 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
1554 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
1555 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
1556 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
1557 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
1558 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
1559 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
1560
1561 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
1562 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
1563 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
1564 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
1565 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
1566
1567 <blockquote><pre>
1568 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
1569 </pre></blockquote>
1570
1571 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
1572 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
1573 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
1574 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
1575 question.</p>
1576
1577 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
1578 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
1579
1580 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
1581 try running this command on the command line:</p>
1582
1583 <blockquote><pre>
1584 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
1585 </pre></blockquote>
1586
1587 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1588 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1589 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1590
1591       </div>
1592       <div class="tags">
1593
1594
1595         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>.
1596
1597
1598       </div>
1599     </div>
1600     <div class="padding"></div>
1601
1602     <div class="entry">
1603       <div class="title">
1604         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
1605       </div>
1606       <div class="date">
1607         30th November 2015
1608       </div>
1609       <div class="body">
1610         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
1611 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
1612 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
1613 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
1614 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
1615
1616 <blockquote>
1617
1618 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
1619
1620 <blockquote>
1621 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
1622
1623 The first step is to choose a
1624 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
1625 code.<br/>
1626
1627 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
1628 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
1629
1630 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
1631 work<br/>
1632
1633 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
1634 </blockquote>
1635
1636 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
1637 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
1638 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
1639 0x57</a></small></p>
1640
1641 <p>As the Debian Website
1642 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
1643 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
1644 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
1645 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
1646 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
1647 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
1648 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
1649 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
1650 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
1651 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
1652 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
1653 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
1654 Freedom">FaiF</a>
1655 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
1656 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
1657 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
1658 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
1659 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
1660 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
1661 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
1662 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
1663 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
1664 In March the SFC supported a
1665 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
1666 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
1667 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
1668 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
1669 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
1670 conferences
1671 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
1672 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
1673 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
1674 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
1675 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
1676 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
1677 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
1678 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
1679 Software.</p>
1680
1681 <p>If you support Free Software,
1682 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
1683 what the SFC do, agree with their
1684 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
1685 principles</a>, are happy about their
1686 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
1687 work on a project that is an SFC
1688 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
1689 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
1690 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
1691 Allan Webber</a>,
1692 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
1693 Smith</a>,
1694 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
1695 Bacon</a>, myself and
1696 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
1697 becoming a
1698 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
1699 next week your donation will be
1700 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
1701 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
1702 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
1703 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
1704 social media accounts.</p>
1705
1706 </blockquote>
1707
1708 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
1709 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
1710 supporter too?</p>
1711
1712       </div>
1713       <div class="tags">
1714
1715
1716         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
1717
1718
1719       </div>
1720     </div>
1721     <div class="padding"></div>
1722
1723     <div class="entry">
1724       <div class="title">
1725         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
1726       </div>
1727       <div class="date">
1728         17th November 2015
1729       </div>
1730       <div class="body">
1731         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
1732 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
1733 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
1734 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
1735 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
1736 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
1737 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
1738 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
1739 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
1740 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
1741
1742 <pre>
1743 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
1744       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
1745 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
1746 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
1747 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1748 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1749 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
1750 </pre>
1751
1752 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
1753 my old key.</p>
1754
1755 <p>If you signed my old key
1756 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
1757 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
1758 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
1759 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</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/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
1775       </div>
1776       <div class="date">
1777         24th September 2015
1778       </div>
1779       <div class="body">
1780         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
1781 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
1782 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
1783 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
1784 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
1785 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
1786 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
1787
1788 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
1789
1790 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
1791 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
1792 by someone else.  I found
1793 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
1794 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
1795 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
1796 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
1797 from him.  Via
1798 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
1799 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
1800 discovered
1801 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
1802 available in Debian.</p>
1803
1804 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
1805 battery stats ever since. Now my
1806 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
1807 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
1808 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
1809 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
1810
1811 <pre>
1812 #!/bin/sh
1813 # Inspired by
1814 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
1815 # See also
1816 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
1817 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
1818
1819 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
1820     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
1821
1822 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
1823     (
1824         printf "timestamp,"
1825         for f in $files; do
1826             printf "%s," $f
1827         done
1828         echo
1829     ) > "$logfile"
1830 fi
1831
1832 log_battery() {
1833     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
1834     # when several log processes run in parallel.
1835     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
1836         for f in $files; do \
1837             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
1838         done)
1839     echo "$msg"
1840 }
1841
1842 cd /sys/class/power_supply
1843
1844 for bat in BAT*; do
1845     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
1846 done
1847 </pre>
1848
1849 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
1850 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
1851 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
1852 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
1853 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
1854 The code for the Debian package
1855 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
1856 available on github</a>.</p>
1857
1858 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
1859
1860 <pre>
1861 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
1862 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
1863 [...]
1864 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1865 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
1866 </pre>
1867
1868 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
1869 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
1870 battery.</p>
1871
1872 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
1873 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
1874 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
1875 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
1876 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
1877 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
1878 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
1879 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
1880 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
1881 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
1882 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
1883 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
1884 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
1885 Linux too.</p>
1886
1887 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
1888 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
1889 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
1890 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
1891 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
1892 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
1893 load).</p>
1894
1895 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
1896 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
1897 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
1898 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
1899 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
1900 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
1901 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
1902 those.</p>
1903
1904 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
1905 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
1906 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
1907 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
1908 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
1909 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
1910 specific.</p>
1911
1912       </div>
1913       <div class="tags">
1914
1915
1916         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>.
1917
1918
1919       </div>
1920     </div>
1921     <div class="padding"></div>
1922
1923     <div class="entry">
1924       <div class="title">
1925         <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>
1926       </div>
1927       <div class="date">
1928          5th July 2015
1929       </div>
1930       <div class="body">
1931         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
1932 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
1933 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
1934 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
1935 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
1936 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
1937 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
1938 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
1939 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
1940 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
1941 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
1942
1943 <p>One tip I got was to use the
1944 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
1945 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
1946 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
1947 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
1948 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
1949 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
1950
1951 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
1952 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
1953 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
1954 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
1955 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
1956 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
1957 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
1958 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
1959 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
1960 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
1961 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
1962 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
1963 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
1964 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
1965 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
1966
1967 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
1968 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
1969 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
1970 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
1971
1972 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
1973 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
1974
1975 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
1976 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
1977 different
1978 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
1979 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
1980
1981       </div>
1982       <div class="tags">
1983
1984
1985         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>.
1986
1987
1988       </div>
1989     </div>
1990     <div class="padding"></div>
1991
1992     <div class="entry">
1993       <div class="title">
1994         <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>
1995       </div>
1996       <div class="date">
1997          3rd July 2015
1998       </div>
1999       <div class="body">
2000         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
2001 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
2002 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
2003 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
2004 flickering.</p>
2005
2006 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
2007 still as
2008 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
2009 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
2010 good help from
2011 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
2012 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
2013 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
2014 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
2015 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
2016 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
2017 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
2018 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
2019 deteriorated since X41.</p>
2020
2021 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
2022 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
2023 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
2024 have suggestions.</p>
2025
2026 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
2027 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
2028 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
2029
2030       </div>
2031       <div class="tags">
2032
2033
2034         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>.
2035
2036
2037       </div>
2038     </div>
2039     <div class="padding"></div>
2040
2041     <div class="entry">
2042       <div class="title">
2043         <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>
2044       </div>
2045       <div class="date">
2046         22nd November 2014
2047       </div>
2048       <div class="body">
2049         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
2050 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
2051 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
2052 courtesy of
2053 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
2054 Schubert</a> and
2055 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
2056 McVittie</a>.
2057
2058 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
2059 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
2060 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
2061 you upgrade:</p>
2062
2063 <p><blockquote><pre>
2064 Package: systemd-sysv
2065 Pin: release o=Debian
2066 Pin-Priority: -1
2067 </pre></blockquote><p>
2068
2069 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
2070 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
2071 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
2072 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
2073 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
2074
2075 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
2076 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
2077 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
2078 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
2079 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
2080 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
2081
2082 <p><blockquote><pre>
2083 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
2084 </pre></blockquote><p>
2085
2086 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
2087
2088 <p><blockquote><pre>
2089 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
2090 </pre></blockquote><p>
2091
2092 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
2093 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
2094
2095 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
2096 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
2097 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
2098 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
2099 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
2100 Jessie is released.</p>
2101
2102 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
2103 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
2104 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
2105 line.</p>
2106
2107       </div>
2108       <div class="tags">
2109
2110
2111         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>.
2112
2113
2114       </div>
2115     </div>
2116     <div class="padding"></div>
2117
2118     <div class="entry">
2119       <div class="title">
2120         <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>
2121       </div>
2122       <div class="date">
2123         10th November 2014
2124       </div>
2125       <div class="body">
2126         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
2127 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
2128 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
2129
2130 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
2131 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
2132 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
2133 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
2134 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
2135 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
2136 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
2137 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
2138 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
2139 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
2140 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
2141 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
2142 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
2143 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
2144 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
2145
2146 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
2147 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
2148 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
2149 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
2150 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
2151 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
2152 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
2153 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
2154 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
2155 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
2156 were fairly easy, and
2157 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
2158 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
2159 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
2160 useful approach.</p>
2161
2162 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
2163 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
2164 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
2165 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
2166 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
2167 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
2168 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
2169 this:</p>
2170
2171 <p><blockquote><pre>
2172 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
2173   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
2174 </pre></blockquote></p>
2175
2176 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
2177 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
2178
2179 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
2180 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
2181 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
2182 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
2183 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
2184 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
2185 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
2186 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
2187 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
2188 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
2189 system.</p>
2190
2191 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
2192 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
2193 SMTorP. :)</p>
2194
2195       </div>
2196       <div class="tags">
2197
2198
2199         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>.
2200
2201
2202       </div>
2203     </div>
2204     <div class="padding"></div>
2205
2206     <div class="entry">
2207       <div class="title">
2208         <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>
2209       </div>
2210       <div class="date">
2211         22nd October 2014
2212       </div>
2213       <div class="body">
2214         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
2215 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
2216 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
2217 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
2218 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
2219 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
2220 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
2221 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
2222 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
2223 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
2224 lists I recently took over:</p>
2225
2226 <p><blockquote><pre>
2227 % time listadmin xiph
2228 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2229 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2230
2231 real    0m1.709s
2232 user    0m0.232s
2233 sys     0m0.012s
2234 %
2235 </pre></blockquote></p>
2236
2237 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
2238 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
2239 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
2240 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
2241 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
2242 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
2243 program.</p>
2244
2245 <p>If you install
2246 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
2247 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
2248 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
2249
2250 <p><blockquote><pre>
2251 username username@example.org
2252 spamlevel 23
2253 default discard
2254 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
2255
2256 password secret
2257 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
2258 mailman-list@lists.example.com
2259
2260 password hidden
2261 other-list@otherserver.example.org
2262 </pre></blockquote></p>
2263
2264 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
2265 learn the details.</p>
2266
2267 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
2268 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
2269 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
2270 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
2271
2272 <p><blockquote><pre>
2273 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
2274 </pre></blockquote></p>
2275
2276 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
2277 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
2278 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
2279 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
2280 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
2281 email.</p>
2282
2283 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
2284 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
2285 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
2286 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
2287 software.</p>
2288
2289 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2290 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2291 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2292
2293 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
2294 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
2295 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
2296 sure why.</p>
2297
2298       </div>
2299       <div class="tags">
2300
2301
2302         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2303
2304
2305       </div>
2306     </div>
2307     <div class="padding"></div>
2308
2309     <div class="entry">
2310       <div class="title">
2311         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
2312       </div>
2313       <div class="date">
2314         17th October 2014
2315       </div>
2316       <div class="body">
2317         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
2318 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
2319 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
2320 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
2321 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
2322 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
2323 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
2324
2325 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
2326 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
2327 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
2328 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
2329 of this story.)</p>
2330
2331 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
2332 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
2333 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
2334 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
2335 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
2336 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
2337 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
2338 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
2339 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
2340 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
2341
2342 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
2343 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
2344 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
2345 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
2346
2347 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
2348 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
2349
2350 <p><blockquote><pre>
2351 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
2352 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
2353 </pre></blockquote></p>
2354
2355 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
2356 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
2357 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
2358 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
2359 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
2360 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
2361 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
2362 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
2363
2364 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
2365 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
2366
2367 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
2368 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
2369 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
2370 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
2371 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
2372
2373 <p><blockquote><pre>
2374 Task: isenkram-packages
2375 Section: hardware
2376 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2377  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
2378  proposed.
2379 Test-new-install: show show
2380 Relevance: 8
2381 Packages: for-current-hardware
2382
2383 Task: isenkram-firmware
2384 Section: hardware
2385 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
2386  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
2387  packages are proposed.
2388 Test-new-install: mark show
2389 Relevance: 8
2390 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
2391 </pre></blockquote></p>
2392
2393 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
2394 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
2395 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
2396 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
2397 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
2398
2399 <p><blockquote><pre>
2400 #!/bin/sh
2401 #
2402 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
2403 export PATH
2404 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
2405 </pre></blockquote></p>
2406
2407 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
2408 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
2409
2410 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
2411 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
2412 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
2413 install.</p>
2414
2415 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
2416 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
2417 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
2418
2419       </div>
2420       <div class="tags">
2421
2422
2423         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>.
2424
2425
2426       </div>
2427     </div>
2428     <div class="padding"></div>
2429
2430     <div class="entry">
2431       <div class="title">
2432         <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>
2433       </div>
2434       <div class="date">
2435          4th October 2014
2436       </div>
2437       <div class="body">
2438         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
2439 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
2440 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
2441 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
2442
2443 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
2444
2445 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
2446 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
2447 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
2448
2449       </div>
2450       <div class="tags">
2451
2452
2453         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>.
2454
2455
2456       </div>
2457     </div>
2458     <div class="padding"></div>
2459
2460     <div class="entry">
2461       <div class="title">
2462         <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>
2463       </div>
2464       <div class="date">
2465          4th October 2014
2466       </div>
2467       <div class="body">
2468         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
2469 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
2470 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
2471 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
2472 Dibb.</p>
2473
2474 <p>I just wrapped up
2475 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
2476 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
2477 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
2478 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
2479 0.17.</p>
2480
2481 <ul>
2482
2483  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
2484  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
2485    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
2486  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
2487  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
2488  <li>Fix include orders</li>
2489  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
2490  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
2491  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
2492    the palette size is the same.</li>
2493  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
2494  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
2495  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
2496  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
2497    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
2498
2499 </ul>
2500
2501 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
2502 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
2503 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
2504
2505       </div>
2506       <div class="tags">
2507
2508
2509         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>.
2510
2511
2512       </div>
2513     </div>
2514     <div class="padding"></div>
2515
2516     <div class="entry">
2517       <div class="title">
2518         <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>
2519       </div>
2520       <div class="date">
2521         26th September 2014
2522       </div>
2523       <div class="body">
2524         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2525 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
2526 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
2527 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
2528 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
2529 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
2530 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
2531 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
2532 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
2533 future.  The
2534 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
2535 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
2536 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
2537 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
2538 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
2539
2540 <p>First, download the test ISO via
2541 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
2542 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
2543 or rsync (use
2544 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
2545 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
2546 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
2547 install with some tweaking.</p>
2548
2549 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
2550 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
2551
2552 <p><blockquote><pre>
2553 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
2554 </pre></blockquote></p>
2555
2556 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
2557 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
2558 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
2559 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
2560
2561 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
2562 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
2563 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
2564 your need.</p>
2565
2566 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
2567 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
2568 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
2569 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
2570 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
2571 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
2572 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
2573 days.</p>
2574
2575 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
2576 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
2577 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
2578 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
2579 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
2580 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
2581 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
2582 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
2583 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
2584
2585 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
2586 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
2587 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
2588
2589       </div>
2590       <div class="tags">
2591
2592
2593         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>.
2594
2595
2596       </div>
2597     </div>
2598     <div class="padding"></div>
2599
2600     <div class="entry">
2601       <div class="title">
2602         <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>
2603       </div>
2604       <div class="date">
2605         25th September 2014
2606       </div>
2607       <div class="body">
2608         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
2609 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
2610 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
2611 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
2612 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
2613 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
2614 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
2615 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
2616 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
2617 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
2618 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
2619 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
2620 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
2621
2622 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
2623 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
2624 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
2625 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
2626 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
2627 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
2628 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
2629 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
2630 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
2631 list</a>. :)</p>
2632
2633       </div>
2634       <div class="tags">
2635
2636
2637         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>.
2638
2639
2640       </div>
2641     </div>
2642     <div class="padding"></div>
2643
2644     <div class="entry">
2645       <div class="title">
2646         <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>
2647       </div>
2648       <div class="date">
2649         16th September 2014
2650       </div>
2651       <div class="body">
2652         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
2653 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
2654 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
2655 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
2656 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
2657 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
2658 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
2659 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
2660 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
2661 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
2662 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
2663 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
2664 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
2665 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
2666
2667 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
2668 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
2669 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
2670 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
2671 depend on the small and clever package
2672 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
2673 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
2674 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
2675 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
2676 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
2677 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
2678 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
2679 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
2680 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
2681 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
2682 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
2683
2684 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
2685 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
2686 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
2687 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
2688 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
2689 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
2690 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
2691 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
2692 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
2693 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
2694 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
2695 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
2696 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
2697 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
2698 dialog.</p>
2699
2700 <p><table>
2701
2702 <tr>
2703 <th>Machine/setup</th>
2704 <th>Original tasksel</th>
2705 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
2706 <th>Reduction</th>
2707 </tr>
2708
2709 <tr>
2710 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
2711 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
2712 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
2713 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
2714 </tr>
2715
2716 <tr>
2717 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
2718 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
2719 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
2720 <td>23 min 40%</td>
2721 </tr>
2722
2723 <tr>
2724 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
2725 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
2726 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
2727 <td>11 min 50%</td>
2728 </tr>
2729
2730 <tr>
2731 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
2732 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
2733 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
2734 <td>2 min 33%</td>
2735 </tr>
2736
2737 <tr>
2738 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
2739 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
2740 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
2741 <td>4 min 21%</td>
2742 </tr>
2743
2744 </table></p>
2745
2746 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
2747 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
2748 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
2749 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
2750 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
2751 installed.</p>
2752
2753 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
2754 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
2755 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
2756 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
2757 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
2758 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
2759 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
2760 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
2761 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
2762 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
2763 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
2764 for the entire installation.</p>
2765
2766 <p>I've implemented this in the
2767 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
2768 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
2769 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
2770 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
2771 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
2772
2773 <p><blockquote><pre>
2774 #!/bin/sh
2775 set -e
2776 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
2777 info() {
2778     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
2779 }
2780 error() {
2781     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
2782 }
2783 override_install() {
2784     apt-install eatmydata || true
2785     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
2786         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
2787             file=/usr/bin/$bin
2788             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
2789             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
2790                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
2791                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
2792                     > /target$file.edu
2793                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
2794                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
2795                     --rename --quiet --add $file
2796                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
2797             else
2798                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
2799             fi
2800         done
2801     else
2802         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
2803     fi
2804 }
2805
2806 override_install
2807 </pre></blockquote></p>
2808
2809 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
2810 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
2811
2812 <p><blockquote><pre>
2813 #! /bin/sh -e
2814 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
2815 error() {
2816     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
2817 }
2818 remove_install_override() {
2819     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
2820         file=/usr/bin/$bin
2821         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
2822             rm /target$file
2823             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
2824                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
2825             rm /target$file.edu
2826         else
2827             error "Missing divert for $file."
2828         fi
2829     done
2830     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
2831 }
2832
2833 remove_install_override
2834 </pre></blockquote></p>
2835
2836 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
2837 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
2838 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
2839
2840 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
2841 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
2842 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
2843 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
2844 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
2845 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
2846 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
2847 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
2848 everyone.</p>
2849
2850 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
2851 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
2852 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
2853 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
2854
2855 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
2856 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
2857 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
2858 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
2859 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
2860
2861 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
2862 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
2863 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
2864 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
2865 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
2866
2867       </div>
2868       <div class="tags">
2869
2870
2871         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>.
2872
2873
2874       </div>
2875     </div>
2876     <div class="padding"></div>
2877
2878     <div class="entry">
2879       <div class="title">
2880         <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>
2881       </div>
2882       <div class="date">
2883         10th September 2014
2884       </div>
2885       <div class="body">
2886         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
2887 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
2888 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
2889 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
2890 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
2891 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
2892 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
2893 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
2894 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
2895 those problems are gone now.</p>
2896
2897 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
2898 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
2899 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
2900 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
2901 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
2902
2903 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
2904 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
2905 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
2906
2907 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
2908 line:</p>
2909
2910 <p><blockquote><pre>
2911 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
2912 </pre></blockquote></p>
2913
2914 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
2915 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
2916 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
2917 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
2918
2919 <p><blockquote><pre>
2920 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
2921 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
2922 %
2923 </pre></blockquote></p>
2924
2925 <p>Now if only
2926 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
2927 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
2928 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
2929 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
2930 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
2931 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
2932 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
2933 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
2934 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
2935
2936       </div>
2937       <div class="tags">
2938
2939
2940         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>.
2941
2942
2943       </div>
2944     </div>
2945     <div class="padding"></div>
2946
2947     <div class="entry">
2948       <div class="title">
2949         <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>
2950       </div>
2951       <div class="date">
2952         17th June 2014
2953       </div>
2954       <div class="body">
2955         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2956 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
2957 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
2958 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
2959 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
2960
2961 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
2962 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
2963 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
2964 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
2965 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
2966 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
2967 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
2968 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
2969 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
2970 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
2971 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
2972 goals.</p>
2973
2974 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
2975 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
2976 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
2977 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
2978 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
2979 chapters together into one large web page (aka
2980 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
2981 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
2982 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
2983 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
2984 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
2985 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
2986 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
2987 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
2988 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
2989 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
2990 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
2991 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
2992 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
2993 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
2994 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
2995 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
2996 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
2997 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
2998
2999 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
3000 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
3001 track the English original.  For this we use the
3002 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
3003 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
3004 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
3005 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
3006 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
3007 files), which the translations update with the native language
3008 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
3009 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
3010 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
3011 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
3012 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
3013 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
3014 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
3015 of the documentation.</p>
3016
3017 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
3018 recommend using
3019 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
3020 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
3021 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
3022 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
3023 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
3024 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
3025 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
3026 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
3027
3028 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
3029 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
3030 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
3031 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
3032 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
3033 translated images by storing translated versions in
3034 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
3035 package maintainers know more.</p>
3036
3037 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
3038 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
3039 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
3040 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
3041 PDF version</a> or the
3042 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
3043 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
3044 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
3045
3046 <p>To learn more, check out
3047 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
3048 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
3049 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
3050 manual on the wiki</a> and
3051 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
3052 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
3053
3054       </div>
3055       <div class="tags">
3056
3057
3058         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>.
3059
3060
3061       </div>
3062     </div>
3063     <div class="padding"></div>
3064
3065     <div class="entry">
3066       <div class="title">
3067         <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>
3068       </div>
3069       <div class="date">
3070         23rd April 2014
3071       </div>
3072       <div class="body">
3073         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
3074 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
3075 So I implemented one, using
3076 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
3077 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
3078 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
3079 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
3080 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
3081 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
3082
3083 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
3084 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
3085 packages to install.  The first part is in
3086 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
3087 this:</p>
3088
3089 <p><blockquote><pre>
3090 Task: isenkram
3091 Section: hardware
3092 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3093  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3094  proposed.
3095 Test-new-install: mark show
3096 Relevance: 8
3097 Packages: for-current-hardware
3098 </pre></blockquote></p>
3099
3100 <p>The second part is in
3101 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
3102 this:</p>
3103
3104 <p><blockquote><pre>
3105 #!/bin/sh
3106 #
3107 (
3108     isenkram-lookup
3109     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3110 ) | sort -u
3111 </pre></blockquote></p>
3112
3113 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
3114 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
3115 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
3116 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
3117 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
3118 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
3119
3120 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
3121 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
3122 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
3123 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
3124 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
3125 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
3126 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
3127 the python-apt code (bug
3128 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
3129 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
3130 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
3131 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
3132 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
3133 unstable today.</p>
3134
3135 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
3136 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
3137 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
3138 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
3139 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
3140 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
3141 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
3142 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
3143 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
3144
3145 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
3146 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
3147 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
3148 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
3149 package.  See also
3150 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
3151 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
3152 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
3153 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
3154
3155       </div>
3156       <div class="tags">
3157
3158
3159         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>.
3160
3161
3162       </div>
3163     </div>
3164     <div class="padding"></div>
3165
3166     <div class="entry">
3167       <div class="title">
3168         <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>
3169       </div>
3170       <div class="date">
3171         15th April 2014
3172       </div>
3173       <div class="body">
3174         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
3175 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
3176 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
3177 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
3178 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
3179 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
3180
3181 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
3182 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
3183 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
3184 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
3185 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
3186 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
3187 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
3188
3189 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
3190 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
3191 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
3192 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
3193 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
3194 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
3195 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
3196 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
3197 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
3198 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
3199 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
3200 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
3201
3202 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
3203 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
3204 become root:</p>
3205
3206 <p><pre>
3207 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
3208   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
3209   u-boot-tools
3210 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
3211   freedom-maker
3212 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
3213 </pre></p>
3214
3215 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
3216 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
3217 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
3218 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
3219 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
3220 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
3221 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
3222 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
3223
3224 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
3225 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
3226 the preseed values:</p>
3227
3228 <p><pre>
3229 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
3230 </pre></p>
3231
3232 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
3233 it still work.</p>
3234
3235 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
3236 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
3237 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
3238 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
3239 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
3240 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
3241 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
3242
3243 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
3244 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
3245 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
3246 irc.debian.org)</a> and
3247 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3248 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3249
3250       </div>
3251       <div class="tags">
3252
3253
3254         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>.
3255
3256
3257       </div>
3258     </div>
3259     <div class="padding"></div>
3260
3261     <div class="entry">
3262       <div class="title">
3263         <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>
3264       </div>
3265       <div class="date">
3266          9th April 2014
3267       </div>
3268       <div class="body">
3269         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
3270 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
3271 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
3272 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
3273 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
3274 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
3275 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
3276 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
3277 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
3278 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
3279 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
3280 have looked at a system called
3281 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
3282 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
3283
3284 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
3285 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
3286 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
3287 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
3288 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
3289 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
3290 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
3291 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
3292 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
3293 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
3294 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
3295 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
3296 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
3297
3298 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
3299 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
3300 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
3301 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
3302 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
3303 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
3304 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
3305 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
3306 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
3307 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
3308 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
3309 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
3310 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
3311 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
3312 account.</p>
3313
3314 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
3315 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
3316 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
3317 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
3318 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
3319 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
3320 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
3321
3322 <p><blockquote><pre>
3323 [s3c]
3324 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3325 backend-login: API-login
3326 backend-password: API-password
3327 fs-passphrase: local-password
3328 </pre></blockquote></p>
3329
3330 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
3331 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
3332 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
3333 details and password to create it:</p>
3334
3335 <p><blockquote><pre>
3336 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
3337 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3338   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3339 Enter backend login:
3340 Enter backend password:
3341 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
3342 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
3343 Enter encryption password:
3344 Confirm encryption password:
3345 Generating random encryption key...
3346 Creating metadata tables...
3347 Dumping metadata...
3348 ..objects..
3349 ..blocks..
3350 ..inodes..
3351 ..inode_blocks..
3352 ..symlink_targets..
3353 ..names..
3354 ..contents..
3355 ..ext_attributes..
3356 Compressing and uploading metadata...
3357 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
3358 # </pre></blockquote></p>
3359
3360 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
3361
3362 <p><blockquote><pre>
3363 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3364   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
3365 Using 4 upload threads.
3366 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
3367 Reading metadata...
3368 ..objects..
3369 ..blocks..
3370 ..inodes..
3371 ..inode_blocks..
3372 ..symlink_targets..
3373 ..names..
3374 ..contents..
3375 ..ext_attributes..
3376 Mounting filesystem...
3377 # df -h /s3ql
3378 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
3379 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
3380 #
3381 </pre></blockquote></p>
3382
3383 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
3384 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
3385 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
3386 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
3387 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
3388 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
3389
3390 <p><blockquote><pre>
3391 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
3392 #
3393 </pre></blockquote></p>
3394
3395 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
3396 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
3397 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
3398 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
3399 file system:</p>
3400
3401 <p><blockquote><pre>
3402 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
3403 Using cached metadata.
3404 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
3405 Checking DB integrity...
3406 Creating temporary extra indices...
3407 Checking lost+found...
3408 Checking cached objects...
3409 Checking names (refcounts)...
3410 Checking contents (names)...
3411 Checking contents (inodes)...
3412 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
3413 Checking objects (reference counts)...
3414 Checking objects (backend)...
3415 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
3416 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
3417 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
3418 Checking objects (sizes)...
3419 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
3420 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
3421 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
3422 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
3423 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
3424 Checking inodes (sizes)...
3425 Checking extended attributes (names)...
3426 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
3427 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
3428 Checking directory reachability...
3429 Checking unix conventions...
3430 Checking referential integrity...
3431 Dropping temporary indices...
3432 Backing up old metadata...
3433 Dumping metadata...
3434 ..objects..
3435 ..blocks..
3436 ..inodes..
3437 ..inode_blocks..
3438 ..symlink_targets..
3439 ..names..
3440 ..contents..
3441 ..ext_attributes..
3442 Compressing and uploading metadata...
3443 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
3444 #
3445 </pre></blockquote></p>
3446
3447 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
3448 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
3449 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
3450 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
3451 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
3452 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
3453 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
3454 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
3455 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
3456 working set.</p>
3457
3458 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
3459 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
3460 busy:</p>
3461
3462 <p><blockquote><pre>
3463 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
3464   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
3465 Using 8 upload threads.
3466 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
3467 #
3468 </pre></blockquote></p>
3469
3470 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
3471 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
3472 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
3473 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
3474 s3qlctrl:
3475
3476 <p><blockquote><pre>
3477 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
3478 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
3479 #
3480 </pre></blockquote></p>
3481
3482 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
3483 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
3484 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
3485 a report:</p>
3486
3487 <p><blockquote><pre>
3488 # s3qlstat /s3ql
3489 Directory entries:    9141
3490 Inodes:               9143
3491 Data blocks:          8851
3492 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
3493 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
3494 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
3495 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
3496 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
3497 #
3498 </pre></blockquote></p>
3499
3500 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
3501 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
3502 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
3503 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
3504 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
3505 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
3506 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
3507 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
3508 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
3509 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
3510 best.</p>
3511
3512 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
3513 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
3514 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
3515 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
3516 poster is titled
3517 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
3518 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
3519 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
3520 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
3521 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
3522
3523 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
3524 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
3525 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
3526 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
3527 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
3528 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
3529 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
3530 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
3531
3532 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
3533 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
3534 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
3535 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
3536 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
3537 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
3538 only read from it.</p>
3539
3540 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3541 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3542 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3543
3544       </div>
3545       <div class="tags">
3546
3547
3548         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3549
3550
3551       </div>
3552     </div>
3553     <div class="padding"></div>
3554
3555     <div class="entry">
3556       <div class="title">
3557         <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>
3558       </div>
3559       <div class="date">
3560         14th March 2014
3561       </div>
3562       <div class="body">
3563         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
3564 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
3565 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
3566 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
3567 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
3568 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
3569 release (0.2).</p>
3570
3571 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
3572 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
3573 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
3574 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
3575 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
3576 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
3577 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
3578 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
3579 and build using
3580 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
3581 with a user with sudo access to become root:
3582
3583 <pre>
3584 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
3585   freedom-maker
3586 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
3587   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
3588   u-boot-tools
3589 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
3590 </pre>
3591
3592 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
3593 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
3594 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
3595 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
3596 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
3597 kpartx call.</p>
3598
3599 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
3600 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
3601 the preseed values:</p>
3602
3603 <pre>
3604 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
3605 </pre>
3606
3607 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
3608 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
3609 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
3610 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
3611 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
3612 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
3613
3614 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
3615 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
3616 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
3617 irc.debian.org)</a> and
3618 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3619 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3620
3621       </div>
3622       <div class="tags">
3623
3624
3625         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>.
3626
3627
3628       </div>
3629     </div>
3630     <div class="padding"></div>
3631
3632     <div class="entry">
3633       <div class="title">
3634         <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>
3635       </div>
3636       <div class="date">
3637         22nd February 2014
3638       </div>
3639       <div class="body">
3640         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
3641 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
3642 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
3643 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
3644 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
3645 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
3646 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
3647 proper home since then.</p>
3648
3649 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
3650 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
3651 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
3652 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
3653 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
3654
3655 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
3656 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
3657 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
3658 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
3659 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
3660 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
3661 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
3662 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
3663 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
3664
3665       </div>
3666       <div class="tags">
3667
3668
3669         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>.
3670
3671
3672       </div>
3673     </div>
3674     <div class="padding"></div>
3675
3676     <div class="entry">
3677       <div class="title">
3678         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
3679       </div>
3680       <div class="date">
3681          3rd February 2014
3682       </div>
3683       <div class="body">
3684         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
3685 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
3686 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
3687 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
3688 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
3689 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
3690 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
3691 <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>,
3692 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
3693
3694 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
3695 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
3696 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
3697 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
3698 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
3699 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
3700
3701 <p><blockquote><pre>
3702 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
3703 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
3704 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
3705 dhclient /dev/eth0
3706 </pre></blockquote></p>
3707
3708 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
3709 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
3710 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
3711
3712 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
3713 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
3714 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
3715 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
3716 side.</p>
3717
3718 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
3719 stuff:</p>
3720
3721 <p><blockquote><pre>
3722 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3723 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
3724 EOF
3725 apt-get update
3726 apt-get dist-upgrade
3727 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
3728     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
3729 update-alternatives --config runsystem
3730 </pre></blockquote></p>
3731
3732 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
3733 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
3734 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
3735 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
3736 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
3737 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
3738 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
3739 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
3740 ssh instead.
3741
3742 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
3743 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
3744 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
3745 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
3746 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
3747 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
3748
3749 <p><blockquote><pre>
3750 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
3751 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
3752 EOF
3753 </pre></blockquote></p>
3754
3755 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
3756 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
3757 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
3758 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
3759
3760 <p><blockquote><pre>
3761 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
3762 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
3763 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
3764 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
3765 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
3766 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
3767 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
3768 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
3769 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
3770 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
3771 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
3772 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
3773 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
3774 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
3775 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
3776 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
3777 #
3778 </pre></blockquote></p>
3779
3780 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
3781 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
3782 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
3783 command line stuff.<p>
3784
3785       </div>
3786       <div class="tags">
3787
3788
3789         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>.
3790
3791
3792       </div>
3793     </div>
3794     <div class="padding"></div>
3795
3796     <div class="entry">
3797       <div class="title">
3798         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
3799       </div>
3800       <div class="date">
3801         14th January 2014
3802       </div>
3803       <div class="body">
3804         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
3805 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
3806 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
3807 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
3808 the source.  The company behind it provide
3809 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
3810 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
3811 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
3812 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
3813 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
3814 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
3815 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
3816 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
3817 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
3818 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
3819 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
3820 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
3821 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
3822 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
3823 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
3824 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
3825 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
3826 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
3827 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
3828
3829 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
3830
3831 <ul>
3832
3833   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
3834   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
3835   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
3836
3837 </ul>
3838
3839 <p>You can
3840 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3841 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3842 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3843 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3844 include a test suite check.</p>
3845
3846       </div>
3847       <div class="tags">
3848
3849
3850         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>.
3851
3852
3853       </div>
3854     </div>
3855     <div class="padding"></div>
3856
3857     <div class="entry">
3858       <div class="title">
3859         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
3860       </div>
3861       <div class="date">
3862         24th November 2013
3863       </div>
3864       <div class="body">
3865         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
3866 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
3867 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
3868 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
3869 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
3870 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
3871 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
3872 is working on.  I checked the
3873 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
3874 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
3875 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
3876 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
3877 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
3878 These are the release notes:</p>
3879
3880 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
3881
3882 <ul>
3883
3884   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
3885    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
3886    up.</li>
3887
3888   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
3889
3890   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
3891    Matthias Klose.</li>
3892
3893   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
3894    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
3895
3896   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
3897    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
3898    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
3899
3900 </ul>
3901
3902 <p>You can
3903 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
3904 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
3905 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
3906 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
3907 include a testsuite check.</p>
3908
3909       </div>
3910       <div class="tags">
3911
3912
3913         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>.
3914
3915
3916       </div>
3917     </div>
3918     <div class="padding"></div>
3919
3920     <div class="entry">
3921       <div class="title">
3922         <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>
3923       </div>
3924       <div class="date">
3925          2nd November 2013
3926       </div>
3927       <div class="body">
3928         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
3929 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
3930 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
3931 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
3932 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
3933
3934 <p><pre>
3935 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
3936 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
3937 # Provides:          rsyslog
3938 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
3939 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
3940 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
3941 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
3942 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
3943 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
3944 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
3945 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
3946 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
3947 ### END INIT INFO
3948 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
3949 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
3950 </pre></p>
3951
3952 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
3953 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
3954 info/comments.</p>
3955
3956 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
3957 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
3958
3959 <p><pre>
3960 #!/bin/sh
3961
3962 # Define LSB log_* functions.
3963 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
3964 # and status_of_proc is working.
3965 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
3966
3967 #
3968 # Function that starts the daemon/service
3969
3970 #
3971 do_start()
3972 {
3973         # Return
3974         #   0 if daemon has been started
3975         #   1 if daemon was already running
3976         #   2 if daemon could not be started
3977         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
3978                 || return 1
3979         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
3980                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
3981                 || return 2
3982         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
3983         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
3984         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
3985 }
3986
3987 #
3988 # Function that stops the daemon/service
3989 #
3990 do_stop()
3991 {
3992         # Return
3993         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
3994         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
3995         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
3996         #   other if a failure occurred
3997         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
3998         RETVAL="$?"
3999         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
4000         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
4001         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
4002         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
4003         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
4004         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
4005         # sleep for some time.
4006         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
4007         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
4008         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
4009         rm -f $PIDFILE
4010         return "$RETVAL"
4011 }
4012
4013 #
4014 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
4015 #
4016 do_reload() {
4017         #
4018         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
4019         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
4020         # then implement that here.
4021         #
4022         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
4023         return 0
4024 }
4025
4026 SCRIPTNAME=$1
4027 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
4028 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
4029 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
4030     script="$1"
4031     shift
4032     . $script
4033 else
4034     exit 0
4035 fi
4036
4037 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
4038 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
4039
4040 # Exit if the package is not installed
4041 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
4042
4043 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
4044 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
4045
4046 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
4047 . /lib/init/vars.sh
4048
4049 case "$1" in
4050   start)
4051         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
4052         do_start
4053         case "$?" in
4054                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4055                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4056         esac
4057         ;;
4058   stop)
4059         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
4060         do_stop
4061         case "$?" in
4062                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4063                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4064         esac
4065         ;;
4066   status)
4067         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
4068         ;;
4069   #reload|force-reload)
4070         #
4071         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
4072         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
4073         #
4074         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
4075         #do_reload
4076         #log_end_msg $?
4077         #;;
4078   restart|force-reload)
4079         #
4080         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
4081         # 'force-reload' alias
4082         #
4083         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
4084         do_stop
4085         case "$?" in
4086           0|1)
4087                 do_start
4088                 case "$?" in
4089                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
4090                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
4091                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
4092                 esac
4093                 ;;
4094           *)
4095                 # Failed to stop
4096                 log_end_msg 1
4097                 ;;
4098         esac
4099         ;;
4100   *)
4101         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
4102         exit 3
4103         ;;
4104 esac
4105
4106 :
4107 </pre></p>
4108
4109 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
4110 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
4111 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
4112 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
4113
4114 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
4115 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
4116 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
4117 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
4118 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
4119
4120       </div>
4121       <div class="tags">
4122
4123
4124         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>.
4125
4126
4127       </div>
4128     </div>
4129     <div class="padding"></div>
4130
4131     <div class="entry">
4132       <div class="title">
4133         <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>
4134       </div>
4135       <div class="date">
4136          1st November 2013
4137       </div>
4138       <div class="body">
4139         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
4140 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
4141 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
4142 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
4143 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
4144 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
4145 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
4146 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
4147 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
4148 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
4149 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
4150 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
4151
4152 <p>The source is now available from
4153 <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>
4154
4155       </div>
4156       <div class="tags">
4157
4158
4159         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>.
4160
4161
4162       </div>
4163     </div>
4164     <div class="padding"></div>
4165
4166     <div class="entry">
4167       <div class="title">
4168         <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>
4169       </div>
4170       <div class="date">
4171         27th October 2013
4172       </div>
4173       <div class="body">
4174         <p>The
4175 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
4176 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
4177 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
4178 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
4179 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
4180 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
4181 of a plan to simplify the build system for
4182 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
4183 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
4184 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
4185 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
4186 Raspberry Pi.</p>
4187
4188 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
4189 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
4190 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
4191 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
4192 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
4193 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
4194 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
4195 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
4196 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
4197 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
4198 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
4199 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
4200 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
4201 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
4202 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
4203 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
4204 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
4205 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
4206 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
4207 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
4208 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
4209 available from
4210 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
4211 upstream project page</a>.</p>
4212
4213 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
4214 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
4215 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
4216 list:</p>
4217
4218 <p><pre>
4219 #!/bin/sh
4220 set -e # Exit on first error
4221 rootdir="$1"
4222 cd "$rootdir"
4223 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
4224 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
4225 EOF
4226 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
4227 # install a kernel somewhere too.
4228 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
4229     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4230 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4231 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
4232 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
4233 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
4234 </pre></p>
4235
4236 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
4237 to build the image:</p>
4238
4239 <pre>
4240 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
4241     --variant minbase \
4242     --arch armel \
4243     --distribution jessie \
4244     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
4245     --image test.img \
4246     --size 600M \
4247     --bootsize 64M \
4248     --boottype vfat \
4249     --log-level debug \
4250     --verbose \
4251     --no-kernel \
4252     --no-extlinux \
4253     --root-password raspberry \
4254     --hostname raspberrypi \
4255     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
4256     --customize `pwd`/customize \
4257     --package netbase \
4258     --package git-core \
4259     --package binutils \
4260     --package ca-certificates \
4261     --package wget \
4262     --package kmod
4263 </pre></p>
4264
4265 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
4266 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
4267 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
4268 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
4269 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
4270 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
4271 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
4272
4273 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
4274 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
4275 build dependency list.</p>
4276
4277 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
4278 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
4279 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
4280 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
4281
4282       </div>
4283       <div class="tags">
4284
4285
4286         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>.
4287
4288
4289       </div>
4290     </div>
4291     <div class="padding"></div>
4292
4293     <div class="entry">
4294       <div class="title">
4295         <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>
4296       </div>
4297       <div class="date">
4298         15th October 2013
4299       </div>
4300       <div class="body">
4301         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
4302 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
4303 these. :)</p>
4304
4305 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
4306 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
4307 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
4308 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
4309 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
4310 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
4311 hope you will to. :)</p>
4312
4313 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
4314 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
4315 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
4316 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
4317 donated.  Are you next?</p>
4318
4319 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
4320 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
4321 statement under the heading
4322 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
4323 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
4324 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
4325 too.</p>
4326
4327       </div>
4328       <div class="tags">
4329
4330
4331         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>.
4332
4333
4334       </div>
4335     </div>
4336     <div class="padding"></div>
4337
4338     <div class="entry">
4339       <div class="title">
4340         <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>
4341       </div>
4342       <div class="date">
4343         27th September 2013
4344       </div>
4345       <div class="body">
4346         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
4347 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
4348 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
4349 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
4350
4351 <ul>
4352
4353 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
4354 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
4355
4356 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
4357 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4358
4359 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
4360 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
4361 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
4362 (Youtube)</li>
4363
4364 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
4365 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
4366
4367 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
4368 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
4369
4370 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
4371 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
4372 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
4373
4374 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
4375 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
4376 (Youtube)</li>
4377
4378 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
4379 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
4380
4381 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
4382 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
4383
4384 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
4385 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
4386 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
4387
4388 </ul>
4389
4390 <p>A larger list is available from
4391 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
4392 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
4393
4394 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
4395 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
4396 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
4397 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
4398 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
4399 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
4400 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
4401 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
4402 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
4403 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4404 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4405
4406       </div>
4407       <div class="tags">
4408
4409
4410         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>.
4411
4412
4413       </div>
4414     </div>
4415     <div class="padding"></div>
4416
4417     <div class="entry">
4418       <div class="title">
4419         <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>
4420       </div>
4421       <div class="date">
4422         10th September 2013
4423       </div>
4424       <div class="body">
4425         <p>I was introduced to the
4426 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
4427 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
4428 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
4429 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
4430 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
4431 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
4432 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
4433 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
4434
4435 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
4436 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
4437 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
4438 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
4439 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
4440
4441 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
4442 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
4443 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
4444 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
4445 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
4446 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
4447 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
4448 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
4449 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
4450 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
4451 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
4452 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
4453 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
4454 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
4455 missing in Debian).</p>
4456
4457 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
4458 scripts
4459 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
4460 and a administrative web interface
4461 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
4462 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
4463 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
4464 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
4465 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
4466 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
4467 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
4468 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
4469 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
4470 this is really working yet, see
4471 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
4472 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
4473 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
4474 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
4475 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
4476 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
4477 with lots of half baked features.</p>
4478
4479 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
4480 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
4481 at.</p>
4482
4483 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
4484
4485 <ol>
4486
4487 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
4488 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
4489 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
4490 to the Debian installer:<p>
4491 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
4492
4493 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
4494 install on.</li>
4495
4496 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
4497 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
4498
4499 </ol>
4500
4501 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
4502
4503 <ol>
4504
4505 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
4506 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
4507 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
4508 <pre>
4509 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
4510 </pre></li>
4511 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
4512 <pre>
4513 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
4514    apt-key add -
4515 apt-get update
4516 apt-get install freedombox-setup
4517 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
4518 </pre></li>
4519 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
4520
4521 </ol>
4522
4523 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
4524 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
4525 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
4526 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
4527 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
4528
4529 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
4530 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
4531 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
4532 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
4533
4534 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
4535 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
4536 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
4537 irc.debian.org and the
4538 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
4539 mailing list</a>.</p>
4540
4541 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
4542 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
4543 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
4544 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
4545 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
4546 default password is 'secret'.</p>
4547
4548       </div>
4549       <div class="tags">
4550
4551
4552         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>.
4553
4554
4555       </div>
4556     </div>
4557     <div class="padding"></div>
4558
4559     <div class="entry">
4560       <div class="title">
4561         <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>
4562       </div>
4563       <div class="date">
4564         18th August 2013
4565       </div>
4566       <div class="body">
4567         <p>Earlier, I reported about
4568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
4569 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
4570 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
4571 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
4572 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
4573 currently on the disk.</p>
4574
4575 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
4576 <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>
4577 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
4578 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
4579 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
4580 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
4581 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
4582 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
4583 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
4584 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
4585 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
4586 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
4587 the broken disks.</p>
4588
4589       </div>
4590       <div class="tags">
4591
4592
4593         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>.
4594
4595
4596       </div>
4597     </div>
4598     <div class="padding"></div>
4599
4600     <div class="entry">
4601       <div class="title">
4602         <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>
4603       </div>
4604       <div class="date">
4605         17th July 2013
4606       </div>
4607       <div class="body">
4608         <p>Today I switched to
4609 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
4610 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
4611 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
4612 <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
4613 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
4614 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
4615 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
4616 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
4617 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
4618 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
4619 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
4620 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
4621 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
4622 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
4623 station from now on.</p>
4624
4625 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
4626 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
4627 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
4628 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
4629 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
4630 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
4631 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
4632 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
4633 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
4634 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
4635 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
4636 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
4637
4638 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
4639 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
4640 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
4641 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
4642 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
4643 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
4644 parameters are tuned:</p>
4645
4646 <ul>
4647
4648 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
4649     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
4650
4651 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
4652     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
4653     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
4654
4655 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
4656     systems.</li>
4657
4658 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
4659     /etc/fstab.</li>
4660
4661 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
4662
4663 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
4664     cron.daily).</li>
4665
4666 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
4667     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
4668
4669 </ul>
4670
4671 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
4672 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
4673 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
4674 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
4675 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
4676 from getting the data on the disk (see
4677 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
4678 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
4679 right thing to do.</p>
4680
4681 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
4682 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
4683 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
4684
4685 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
4686 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
4687 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
4688 instead of during my work.</p>
4689
4690 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
4691 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
4692
4693 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
4694 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
4695 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
4696
4697 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
4698 there.</p>
4699
4700 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
4701 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
4702 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
4703 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
4704 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
4705 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
4706 back.</p>
4707
4708       </div>
4709       <div class="tags">
4710
4711
4712         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>.
4713
4714
4715       </div>
4716     </div>
4717     <div class="padding"></div>
4718
4719     <div class="entry">
4720       <div class="title">
4721         <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>
4722       </div>
4723       <div class="date">
4724         10th July 2013
4725       </div>
4726       <div class="body">
4727         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
4728 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
4729 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
4730 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
4731 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
4732 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
4733 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
4734 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
4735
4736 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
4737 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
4738 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
4739 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
4740 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
4741 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
4742 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
4743 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
4744 lock up when I download a new
4745 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
4746 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
4747 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
4748
4749 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
4750 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
4751 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
4752 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
4753 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
4754 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
4755
4756 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
4757 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
4758 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
4759 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
4760 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
4761 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
4762
4763 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
4764 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
4765 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
4766 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
4767 exist).</p>
4768
4769       </div>
4770       <div class="tags">
4771
4772
4773         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>.
4774
4775
4776       </div>
4777     </div>
4778     <div class="padding"></div>
4779
4780     <div class="entry">
4781       <div class="title">
4782         <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>
4783       </div>
4784       <div class="date">
4785          9th July 2013
4786       </div>
4787       <div class="body">
4788         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
4789 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
4790 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
4791 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
4792 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4793 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
4794 Bitraf</a>.</p>
4795
4796 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
4797 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
4798 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
4799 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
4800 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
4801
4802       </div>
4803       <div class="tags">
4804
4805
4806         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>.
4807
4808
4809       </div>
4810     </div>
4811     <div class="padding"></div>
4812
4813     <div class="entry">
4814       <div class="title">
4815         <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>
4816       </div>
4817       <div class="date">
4818          5th July 2013
4819       </div>
4820       <div class="body">
4821         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
4822 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
4823 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
4824 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
4825 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
4826 ended up picking a
4827 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
4828 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
4829 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
4830 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
4831 on that below.</p>
4832
4833 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
4834 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
4835 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
4836 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
4837 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
4838 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
4839 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
4840 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
4841 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
4842
4843 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
4844 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
4845 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
4846 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
4847 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
4848 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
4849 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
4850
4851 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
4852 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
4853
4854 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
4855 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
4856 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
4857 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
4858 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
4859 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
4860 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
4861 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
4862 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
4863 kernel developers as
4864 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
4865 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
4866 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
4867 Lenovo forums, both for
4868 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
4869 2012-11-10</a> and for
4870 <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
4871 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
4872 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
4873 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
4874 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
4875 There is even a
4876 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
4877 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
4878 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
4879
4880 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
4881 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
4882 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
4883 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
4884 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
4885 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
4886 fixed. :)</p>
4887
4888       </div>
4889       <div class="tags">
4890
4891
4892         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>.
4893
4894
4895       </div>
4896     </div>
4897     <div class="padding"></div>
4898
4899     <div class="entry">
4900       <div class="title">
4901         <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>
4902       </div>
4903       <div class="date">
4904          4th July 2013
4905       </div>
4906       <div class="body">
4907         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
4908 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
4909 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
4910 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
4911 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
4912 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
4913 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
4914 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
4915 with an expencive door stop.</p>
4916
4917 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
4918 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
4919 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
4920 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
4921 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
4922 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
4923 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
4924
4925 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
4926 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
4927 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
4928 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
4929 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
4930 new laptop now. :)</p>
4931
4932 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
4933
4934       </div>
4935       <div class="tags">
4936
4937
4938         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>.
4939
4940
4941       </div>
4942     </div>
4943     <div class="padding"></div>
4944
4945     <div class="entry">
4946       <div class="title">
4947         <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>
4948       </div>
4949       <div class="date">
4950         25th June 2013
4951       </div>
4952       <div class="body">
4953         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
4954 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
4955 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
4956 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
4957 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
4958 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
4959 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
4960 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
4961 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
4962 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
4963 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
4964
4965 <p><pre>
4966 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
4967 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
4968 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
4969 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
4970 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
4971 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
4972 firmware-ipw2x00
4973 firmware-ipw2x00
4974 Preconfiguring packages ...
4975 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
4976 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
4977 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
4978 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
4979 #
4980 </pre></p>
4981
4982 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
4983 printed instead:</p>
4984
4985 <p><pre>
4986 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
4987 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
4988 #
4989 </pre></p>
4990
4991 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
4992 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
4993
4994 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
4995 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
4996 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
4997 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
4998 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
4999 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
5000 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
5001 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
5002 machine.</p>
5003
5004 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
5005 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
5006 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
5007 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
5008 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
5009 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
5010
5011       </div>
5012       <div class="tags">
5013
5014
5015         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>.
5016
5017
5018       </div>
5019     </div>
5020     <div class="padding"></div>
5021
5022     <div class="entry">
5023       <div class="title">
5024         <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>
5025       </div>
5026       <div class="date">
5027         11th June 2013
5028       </div>
5029       <div class="body">
5030         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
5031 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
5032 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
5033 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
5034 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
5035 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
5036 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
5037 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
5038 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
5039 i915 driver used by the
5040 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
5041 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
5042
5043 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
5044 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
5045 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
5046 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
5047 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
5048
5049 <pre>
5050 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
5051 update-initramfs -u -k all
5052 </pre>
5053
5054 <p>Since March 2012 there is
5055 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
5056 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
5057 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
5058 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
5059 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
5060 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
5061 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
5062 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
5063 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
5064 number.</p>
5065
5066 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
5067 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
5068
5069 <p><pre>
5070 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
5071     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
5072     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
5073  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
5074  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
5075     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
5076  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
5077     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
5078  Latency: 0
5079  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
5080  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
5081  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
5082  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
5083  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
5084  Capabilities: <access denied>
5085  Kernel driver in use: i915
5086 </pre></p>
5087
5088 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
5089
5090 <p><pre>
5091 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
5092        ...
5093         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
5094         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
5095        ...
5096 }
5097 </pre></p>
5098
5099 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
5100 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
5101 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
5102 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
5103 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
5104 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
5105 yet shown up in
5106 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
5107 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
5108 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
5109 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
5110 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
5111 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
5112
5113 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
5114 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
5115 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
5116 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
5117 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
5118 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
5119 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
5120 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
5121 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
5122 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
5123 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
5124 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
5125
5126 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
5127 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
5128 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
5129 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
5130 backlight.</p>
5131
5132       </div>
5133       <div class="tags">
5134
5135
5136         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>.
5137
5138
5139       </div>
5140     </div>
5141     <div class="padding"></div>
5142
5143     <div class="entry">
5144       <div class="title">
5145         <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>
5146       </div>
5147       <div class="date">
5148         27th May 2013
5149       </div>
5150       <div class="body">
5151         <p>Two days ago, I asked
5152 <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
5153 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
5154 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
5155 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
5156 and Windows 8.</p>
5157
5158 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
5159 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
5160 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
5161 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
5162 enough to tell.</p>
5163
5164 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
5165 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
5166 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
5167 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
5168 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
5169 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
5170 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
5171 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
5172 to follow.</p>
5173
5174 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
5175 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
5176 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
5177 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
5178 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
5179 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
5180 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
5181 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
5182
5183 <p>I've updated the
5184 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
5185 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
5186 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
5187 machine.</p>
5188
5189 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
5190 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
5191
5192       </div>
5193       <div class="tags">
5194
5195
5196         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>.
5197
5198
5199       </div>
5200     </div>
5201     <div class="padding"></div>
5202
5203     <div class="entry">
5204       <div class="title">
5205         <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>
5206       </div>
5207       <div class="date">
5208         25th May 2013
5209       </div>
5210       <div class="body">
5211         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
5212 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
5213 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
5214 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
5215 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
5216 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
5217
5218 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
5219 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
5220 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
5221 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
5222 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
5223 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
5224 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
5225 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
5226 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
5227 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
5228
5229 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
5230 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
5231 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
5232 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
5233 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
5234 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
5235
5236 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
5237 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
5238 on new Laptops?</p>
5239
5240       </div>
5241       <div class="tags">
5242
5243
5244         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>.
5245
5246
5247       </div>
5248     </div>
5249     <div class="padding"></div>
5250
5251     <div class="entry">
5252       <div class="title">
5253         <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>
5254       </div>
5255       <div class="date">
5256         17th May 2013
5257       </div>
5258       <div class="body">
5259         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
5260 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
5261 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
5262 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
5263 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
5264 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
5265 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
5266 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
5267 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
5268 donate some money</a>.
5269
5270 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
5271 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
5272 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
5273 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
5274 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
5275
5276 <p>The script,
5277 <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/>
5278 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
5279 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
5280 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
5281
5282 <ol>
5283
5284 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
5285 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
5286 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
5287     our configuration.</li>
5288 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
5289     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
5290     according to the profile specified in the config above,
5291     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
5292 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
5293     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
5294 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
5295
5296 </ol>
5297
5298 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
5299 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
5300 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
5301 the needed packages.</p>
5302
5303 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
5304 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
5305 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
5306 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
5307 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
5308 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
5309
5310 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
5311 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
5312 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
5313
5314 <p><pre>
5315 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
5316 DESKTOP="lxde"
5317 </pre></p>
5318
5319 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
5320 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
5321 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
5322 boot.</p>
5323
5324       </div>
5325       <div class="tags">
5326
5327
5328         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>.
5329
5330
5331       </div>
5332     </div>
5333     <div class="padding"></div>
5334
5335     <div class="entry">
5336       <div class="title">
5337         <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>
5338       </div>
5339       <div class="date">
5340         11th May 2013
5341       </div>
5342       <div class="body">
5343         <P>In January,
5344 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
5345 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
5346 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
5347 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
5348 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
5349 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
5350 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
5351 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
5352 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
5353 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
5354 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
5355 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
5356
5357 <p><table>
5358 <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>
5359 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
5360 <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>
5361 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
5362 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
5363 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
5364 <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>
5365 <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>
5366 <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>
5367 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
5368 </table></p>
5369
5370 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
5371 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
5372 available in experimental.</p>
5373
5374 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
5375 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
5376 for LEGO designers.</p>
5377
5378       </div>
5379       <div class="tags">
5380
5381
5382         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>.
5383
5384
5385       </div>
5386     </div>
5387     <div class="padding"></div>
5388
5389     <div class="entry">
5390       <div class="title">
5391         <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>
5392       </div>
5393       <div class="date">
5394          5th May 2013
5395       </div>
5396       <div class="body">
5397         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
5398 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
5399 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
5400 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
5401 soon.</p>
5402
5403 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
5404 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
5405 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
5406 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
5407 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
5408 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
5409 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
5410 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
5411 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
5412 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
5413 Edu.</a>
5414
5415 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
5416 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
5417 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
5418 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
5419 follow.<p>
5420
5421       </div>
5422       <div class="tags">
5423
5424
5425         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>.
5426
5427
5428       </div>
5429     </div>
5430     <div class="padding"></div>
5431
5432     <div class="entry">
5433       <div class="title">
5434         <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>
5435       </div>
5436       <div class="date">
5437          3rd April 2013
5438       </div>
5439       <div class="body">
5440         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
5441 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
5442 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
5443 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
5444
5445 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
5446 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
5447 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
5448 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
5449 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
5450 BTS. :)</p>
5451
5452       </div>
5453       <div class="tags">
5454
5455
5456         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>.
5457
5458
5459       </div>
5460     </div>
5461     <div class="padding"></div>
5462
5463     <div class="entry">
5464       <div class="title">
5465         <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>
5466       </div>
5467       <div class="date">
5468          2nd February 2013
5469       </div>
5470       <div class="body">
5471         <p>My
5472 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
5473 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
5474 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
5475 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
5476 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
5477 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
5478 version too.</p>
5479
5480 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
5481 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
5482 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
5483 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
5484 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
5485 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
5486 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
5487 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
5488
5489 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
5490 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
5491 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
5492 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
5493 it. :)</p>
5494
5495 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5496 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5497 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5498
5499       </div>
5500       <div class="tags">
5501
5502
5503         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>.
5504
5505
5506       </div>
5507     </div>
5508     <div class="padding"></div>
5509
5510     <div class="entry">
5511       <div class="title">
5512         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
5513       </div>
5514       <div class="date">
5515         22nd January 2013
5516       </div>
5517       <div class="body">
5518         <p>Yesterday, I
5519 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
5520 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
5521 pluggable hardware devices, which I
5522 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
5523 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
5524 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
5525 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
5526 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
5527 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
5528 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
5529 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
5530 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
5531 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
5532
5533 <pre>
5534 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
5535 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
5536 </pre>
5537
5538 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
5539 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
5540 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
5541 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
5542
5543 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
5544 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
5545 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
5546 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
5547 word.</p>
5548
5549 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
5550 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
5551 process.</p>
5552
5553 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
5554 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
5555
5556       </div>
5557       <div class="tags">
5558
5559
5560         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>.
5561
5562
5563       </div>
5564     </div>
5565     <div class="padding"></div>
5566
5567     <div class="entry">
5568       <div class="title">
5569         <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>
5570       </div>
5571       <div class="date">
5572         21st January 2013
5573       </div>
5574       <div class="body">
5575         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
5576 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
5577 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
5578 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
5579 it, fetch the
5580 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
5581 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
5582 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
5583 autostart script.</p>
5584
5585 <p>The design is simple:</p>
5586
5587 <ul>
5588
5589 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
5590 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
5591
5592 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
5593 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
5594 initially did.</li>
5595
5596 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
5597 the APT database, a database
5598 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
5599 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
5600
5601 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
5602 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
5603 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
5604 package or packages.</li>
5605
5606 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
5607 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
5608
5609 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
5610 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
5611
5612 </ul>
5613
5614 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
5615 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
5616 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
5617 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
5618
5619 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
5620 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
5621 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
5622 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
5623 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
5624
5625 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
5626 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
5627 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
5628 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
5629 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
5630 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
5631 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
5632 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
5633
5634 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
5635 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
5636 '<tt>svn checkout
5637 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
5638 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
5639 devscripts package.</p>
5640
5641 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
5642 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
5643 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
5644 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
5645 instructions</a> for details.</p>
5646
5647       </div>
5648       <div class="tags">
5649
5650
5651         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>.
5652
5653
5654       </div>
5655     </div>
5656     <div class="padding"></div>
5657
5658     <div class="entry">
5659       <div class="title">
5660         <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>
5661       </div>
5662       <div class="date">
5663         19th January 2013
5664       </div>
5665       <div class="body">
5666         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
5667 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
5668 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
5669 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
5670 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
5671 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
5672 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
5673 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
5674 not a durable solution.
5675
5676 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
5677 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
5678
5679 <ul>
5680
5681 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
5682   than A4).</li>
5683 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
5684 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
5685 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
5686 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
5687 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
5688 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
5689 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
5690 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
5691 size).</li>
5692 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
5693   X.org packages.</li>
5694 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
5695   the time).
5696
5697 </ul>
5698
5699 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
5700 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
5701 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
5702 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
5703 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
5704 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
5705 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
5706 still be useful.</p>
5707
5708 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
5709 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
5710 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
5711 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
5712 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
5713 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
5714
5715       </div>
5716       <div class="tags">
5717
5718
5719         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>.
5720
5721
5722       </div>
5723     </div>
5724     <div class="padding"></div>
5725
5726     <div class="entry">
5727       <div class="title">
5728         <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>
5729       </div>
5730       <div class="date">
5731         18th January 2013
5732       </div>
5733       <div class="body">
5734         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
5735 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
5736 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
5737 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
5738 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
5739 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
5740 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
5741
5742 <pre>
5743 #!/usr/bin/python
5744 import sys
5745 import apt
5746 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
5747     cache = apt.Cache()
5748     cache.open(None)
5749     thepkgs = []
5750     for pkg in cache:
5751         version = pkg.candidate
5752         if version is None:
5753             version = pkg.installed
5754         if version is None:
5755             continue
5756         record = version.record
5757         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
5758             continue
5759         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
5760         for t in mime_types:
5761             t = t.rstrip().strip()
5762             if t == mimetype:
5763                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
5764     return thepkgs
5765 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
5766 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
5767     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
5768 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
5769 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
5770     print "  %s" %pkg
5771 </pre>
5772
5773 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
5774
5775 <pre>
5776 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
5777 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
5778   gecko-mediaplayer
5779 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
5780 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
5781   browser-plugin-gnash
5782 %
5783 </pre>
5784
5785 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
5786 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
5787 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
5788 anyone working on adding it?</p>
5789
5790 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
5791 request for icweasel support for this feature is
5792 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
5793 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
5794 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
5795 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
5796
5797       </div>
5798       <div class="tags">
5799
5800
5801         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>.
5802
5803
5804       </div>
5805     </div>
5806     <div class="padding"></div>
5807
5808     <div class="entry">
5809       <div class="title">
5810         <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>
5811       </div>
5812       <div class="date">
5813         16th January 2013
5814       </div>
5815       <div class="body">
5816         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
5817 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
5818 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
5819 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
5820 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
5821 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
5822 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
5823 downloaded by the browser.</p>
5824
5825 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
5826 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
5827 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
5828 can be found on the
5829 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
5830 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
5831 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
5832 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
5833 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
5834
5835 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
5836
5837 <pre>
5838   count MIME type
5839   ----- -----------------------
5840      32 text/plain
5841      30 audio/mpeg
5842      29 image/png
5843      28 image/jpeg
5844      27 application/ogg
5845      26 audio/x-mp3
5846      25 image/tiff
5847      25 image/gif
5848      22 image/bmp
5849      22 audio/x-wav
5850      20 audio/x-flac
5851      19 audio/x-mpegurl
5852      18 video/x-ms-asf
5853      18 audio/x-musepack
5854      18 audio/x-mpeg
5855      18 application/x-ogg
5856      17 video/mpeg
5857      17 audio/x-scpls
5858      17 audio/ogg
5859      16 video/x-ms-wmv
5860 </pre>
5861
5862 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
5863
5864 <pre>
5865   count MIME type
5866   ----- -----------------------
5867      33 text/plain
5868      32 image/png
5869      32 image/jpeg
5870      29 audio/mpeg
5871      27 image/gif
5872      26 image/tiff
5873      26 application/ogg
5874      25 audio/x-mp3
5875      22 image/bmp
5876      21 audio/x-wav
5877      19 audio/x-mpegurl
5878      19 audio/x-mpeg
5879      18 video/mpeg
5880      18 audio/x-scpls
5881      18 audio/x-flac
5882      18 application/x-ogg
5883      17 video/x-ms-asf
5884      17 text/html
5885      17 audio/x-musepack
5886      16 image/x-xbitmap
5887 </pre>
5888
5889 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
5890
5891 <pre>
5892   count MIME type
5893   ----- -----------------------
5894      31 text/plain
5895      31 image/png
5896      31 image/jpeg
5897      29 audio/mpeg
5898      28 application/ogg
5899      27 image/gif
5900      26 image/tiff
5901      26 audio/x-mp3
5902      23 audio/x-wav
5903      22 image/bmp
5904      21 audio/x-flac
5905      20 audio/x-mpegurl
5906      19 audio/x-mpeg
5907      18 video/x-ms-asf
5908      18 video/mpeg
5909      18 audio/x-scpls
5910      18 application/x-ogg
5911      17 audio/x-musepack
5912      16 video/x-ms-wmv
5913      16 video/x-msvideo
5914 </pre>
5915
5916 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
5917 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
5918 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
5919 issues.</p>
5920
5921 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
5922 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
5923
5924       </div>
5925       <div class="tags">
5926
5927
5928         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>.
5929
5930
5931       </div>
5932     </div>
5933     <div class="padding"></div>
5934
5935     <div class="entry">
5936       <div class="title">
5937         <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>
5938       </div>
5939       <div class="date">
5940         15th January 2013
5941       </div>
5942       <div class="body">
5943         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
5944 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
5945 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
5946 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
5947 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
5948 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
5949 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
5950 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
5951 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
5952 packages.</p>
5953
5954 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
5955 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
5956 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
5957 modalias.</p>
5958
5959 <p><blockquote>
5960 Package: package-name
5961 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
5962 </blockquote></p>
5963
5964 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
5965 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
5966
5967 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
5968 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
5969
5970 <p><blockquote>
5971 Package: cheese
5972 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
5973 </blockquote></p>
5974
5975 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
5976 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
5977
5978 <p><blockquote>
5979 Package: pcmciautils
5980 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
5981 </blockquote></p>
5982
5983 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
5984 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
5985
5986 <p><blockquote>
5987 Package: colorhug-client
5988 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
5989 </blockquote></p>
5990
5991 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
5992 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
5993 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
5994
5995 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
5996 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
5997 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
5998 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
5999 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
6000 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
6001 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
6002 Raring.</p>
6003
6004 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
6005 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
6006 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
6007 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
6008 try the
6009 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
6010 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
6011 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
6012 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
6013
6014 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
6015 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
6016
6017 <p><blockquote>
6018 % ./hw-support-lookup
6019 <br>yubikey-personalization
6020 <br>%
6021 </blockquote></p>
6022
6023 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
6024 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
6025
6026 <p><blockquote>
6027 % ./hw-support-lookup
6028 <br>pcmciautils
6029 <br>%
6030 </blockquote></p>
6031
6032 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
6033 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
6034 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
6035
6036 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
6037 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
6038 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
6039 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
6040 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
6041 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
6042 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
6043 see if it work.</p>
6044
6045 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
6046 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
6047 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
6048 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
6049
6050       </div>
6051       <div class="tags">
6052
6053
6054         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>.
6055
6056
6057       </div>
6058     </div>
6059     <div class="padding"></div>
6060
6061     <div class="entry">
6062       <div class="title">
6063         <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>
6064       </div>
6065       <div class="date">
6066         14th January 2013
6067       </div>
6068       <div class="body">
6069         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
6070 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
6071 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
6072 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
6073 in
6074 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
6075 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
6076
6077 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
6078
6079 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
6080 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
6081 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
6082 &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;,
6083 &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
6084 &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;.
6085
6086 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
6087 this shell script:</p>
6088
6089 <pre>
6090 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
6091 </pre>
6092
6093 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
6094 using modinfo:</p>
6095
6096 <pre>
6097 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
6098 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
6099 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
6100 %
6101 </pre>
6102
6103 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
6104
6105 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
6106 Bridge memory controller:</p>
6107
6108 <p><blockquote>
6109 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
6110 </blockquote></p>
6111
6112 <p>This represent these values:</p>
6113
6114 <pre>
6115  v   00008086  (vendor)
6116  d   00002770  (device)
6117  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
6118  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
6119  bc  06        (bus class)
6120  sc  00        (bus subclass)
6121  i   00        (interface)
6122 </pre>
6123
6124 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
6125 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
6126 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
6127 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
6128
6129 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
6130 means.</p>
6131
6132 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
6133
6134 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
6135 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
6136
6137 <p><blockquote>
6138 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
6139 </blockquote></p>
6140
6141 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
6142
6143 <pre>
6144  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
6145  p    0001  (device product)
6146  d    0206  (bcddevice)
6147  dc     09  (device class)
6148  dsc    00  (device subclass)
6149  dp     00  (device protocol)
6150  ic     09  (interface class)
6151  isc    00  (interface subclass)
6152  ip     00  (interface protocol)
6153 </pre>
6154
6155 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
6156 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
6157 these alias entries show up:</p>
6158
6159 <p><blockquote>
6160 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
6161 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
6162 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
6163 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
6164 </blockquote></p>
6165
6166 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
6167 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
6168 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
6169
6170 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
6171
6172 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
6173 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
6174
6175 <p><blockquote>
6176 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
6177 </blockquote></p>
6178
6179 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
6180
6181 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
6182
6183 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
6184 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
6185 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
6186
6187 <p><blockquote>
6188 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
6189 </blockquote></p>
6190
6191 <p>The values present are</p>
6192
6193 <pre>
6194  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
6195  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
6196  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
6197  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
6198  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
6199  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
6200  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
6201  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
6202  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
6203  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
6204  ct   10             (chassis type)
6205  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
6206 </pre>
6207
6208 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
6209 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
6210
6211 <pre>
6212   3 Desktop
6213   4 Low Profile Desktop
6214   5 Pizza Box
6215   6 Mini Tower
6216   7 Tower
6217   8 Portable
6218   9 Laptop
6219  10 Notebook
6220  11 Hand Held
6221  12 Docking Station
6222  13 All In One
6223  14 Sub Notebook
6224  15 Space-saving
6225  16 Lunch Box
6226  17 Main Server Chassis
6227  18 Expansion Chassis
6228  19 Sub Chassis
6229  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
6230  21 Peripheral Chassis
6231  22 RAID Chassis
6232  23 Rack Mount Chassis
6233  24 Sealed-case PC
6234  25 Multi-system
6235  26 CompactPCI
6236  27 AdvancedTCA
6237  28 Blade
6238  29 Blade Enclosing
6239 </pre>
6240
6241 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
6242 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
6243 claim it is a desktop.</p>
6244
6245 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
6246
6247 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
6248 test machine:</p>
6249
6250 <p><blockquote>
6251 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
6252 </blockquote></p>
6253
6254 <p>The values present are</p>
6255
6256 <pre>
6257   ty  01  (type)
6258   pr  00  (prototype)
6259   id  00  (id)
6260   ex  00  (extra)
6261 </pre>
6262
6263 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
6264 the valid values are.</p>
6265
6266 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
6267
6268 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
6269 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
6270 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
6271 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
6272 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
6273 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
6274 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
6275
6276 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
6277
6278 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
6279 one can use the following shell script:</p>
6280
6281 <pre>
6282   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
6283     echo "$id" ; \
6284     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
6285   done
6286 </pre>
6287
6288 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
6289 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
6290
6291 <pre>
6292   acpi:ACPI0003:
6293     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
6294   acpi:device:
6295   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
6296   acpi:IBM0068:
6297     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
6298     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
6299     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
6300     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
6301   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
6302     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
6303     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
6304     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
6305   [...]
6306 </pre>
6307
6308 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
6309 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
6310 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
6311 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
6312
6313 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
6314 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
6315 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
6316
6317       </div>
6318       <div class="tags">
6319
6320
6321         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>.
6322
6323
6324       </div>
6325     </div>
6326     <div class="padding"></div>
6327
6328     <div class="entry">
6329       <div class="title">
6330         <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>
6331       </div>
6332       <div class="date">
6333         10th January 2013
6334       </div>
6335       <div class="body">
6336         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
6337 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
6338 Launcher and updated the Debian package
6339 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
6340 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
6341 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
6342 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
6343 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
6344 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
6345 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
6346 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
6347 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
6348 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
6349 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
6350 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
6351 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
6352 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
6353 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
6354
6355       </div>
6356       <div class="tags">
6357
6358
6359         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>.
6360
6361
6362       </div>
6363     </div>
6364     <div class="padding"></div>
6365
6366     <div class="entry">
6367       <div class="title">
6368         <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>
6369       </div>
6370       <div class="date">
6371          9th January 2013
6372       </div>
6373       <div class="body">
6374         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
6375 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
6376 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
6377 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
6378 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
6379 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
6380 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
6381 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
6382 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
6383 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
6384 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
6385
6386 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
6387 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
6388 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
6389 simple:
6390
6391 <ul>
6392
6393 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
6394   starting when a user log in.</li>
6395
6396 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
6397   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
6398
6399 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
6400   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
6401   packages.</li>
6402
6403 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
6404   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
6405
6406 </ul>
6407
6408 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
6409 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
6410 discover database to find packages and
6411 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
6412 packages.</p>
6413
6414 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
6415 draft package is now checked into
6416 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
6417 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
6418 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
6419 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
6420 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
6421 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
6422 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
6423 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
6424 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
6425 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
6426 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
6427 because of the freeze).</p>
6428
6429 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
6430 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
6431 inserted):</p>
6432
6433 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
6434
6435 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
6436 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
6437 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
6438
6439 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
6440 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
6441 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
6442 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
6443 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
6444 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
6445 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
6446
6447 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
6448 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
6449 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
6450 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
6451 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
6452 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
6453 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
6454 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
6455 not be installed?</p>
6456
6457 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
6458 please send me an email. :)</p>
6459
6460       </div>
6461       <div class="tags">
6462
6463
6464         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>.
6465
6466
6467       </div>
6468     </div>
6469     <div class="padding"></div>
6470
6471     <div class="entry">
6472       <div class="title">
6473         <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>
6474       </div>
6475       <div class="date">
6476          2nd January 2013
6477       </div>
6478       <div class="body">
6479         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
6480 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
6481 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
6482 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
6483 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
6484 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
6485 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
6486 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
6487 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
6488 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
6489
6490 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
6491 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
6492 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
6493
6494       </div>
6495       <div class="tags">
6496
6497
6498         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>.
6499
6500
6501       </div>
6502     </div>
6503     <div class="padding"></div>
6504
6505     <div class="entry">
6506       <div class="title">
6507         <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>
6508       </div>
6509       <div class="date">
6510         25th December 2012
6511       </div>
6512       <div class="body">
6513         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
6514 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
6515
6516 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
6517 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
6518 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
6519 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
6520 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
6521 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
6522 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
6523 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
6524 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
6525 name.</p>
6526
6527 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
6528 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
6529 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
6530
6531 <blockquote><pre>
6532 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
6533 cd bitcoin
6534 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
6535 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
6536 </pre></blockquote>
6537
6538 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
6539 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
6540 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
6541 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
6542 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
6543 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
6544 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
6545 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
6546 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
6547
6548 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6549 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6550 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6551
6552       </div>
6553       <div class="tags">
6554
6555
6556         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>.
6557
6558
6559       </div>
6560     </div>
6561     <div class="padding"></div>
6562
6563     <div class="entry">
6564       <div class="title">
6565         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
6566       </div>
6567       <div class="date">
6568         21st December 2012
6569       </div>
6570       <div class="body">
6571         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
6572 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
6573 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
6574 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
6575 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
6576 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
6577 is now maintained by a
6578 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
6579 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
6580 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
6581 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
6582 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
6583 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
6584 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
6585 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
6586 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
6587 Corallo in a
6588 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
6589 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
6590 Debian package.</p>
6591
6592 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
6593 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
6594 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
6595 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
6596 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
6597 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
6598 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
6599 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
6600 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
6601 new version to unstable.
6602
6603 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
6604 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
6605 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
6606 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
6607 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
6608 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
6609 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
6610 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
6611 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
6612 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
6613 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
6614 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
6615 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
6616 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
6617 have not tested them.</p>
6618
6619 <p>My
6620 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
6621 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
6622 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
6623 years ago, as can be
6624 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
6625 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
6626 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
6627 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
6628 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
6629 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
6630 the same address as last time,
6631 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6632
6633       </div>
6634       <div class="tags">
6635
6636
6637         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>.
6638
6639
6640       </div>
6641     </div>
6642     <div class="padding"></div>
6643
6644     <div class="entry">
6645       <div class="title">
6646         <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>
6647       </div>
6648       <div class="date">
6649          7th September 2012
6650       </div>
6651       <div class="body">
6652         <p>As I
6653 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
6654 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
6655 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
6656 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
6657 repository for the project</a>.</p>
6658
6659 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
6660 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
6661 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
6662 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
6663
6664 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
6665 PostScript formats at
6666 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
6667 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
6668
6669       </div>
6670       <div class="tags">
6671
6672
6673         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>.
6674
6675
6676       </div>
6677     </div>
6678     <div class="padding"></div>
6679
6680     <div class="entry">
6681       <div class="title">
6682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
6683       </div>
6684       <div class="date">
6685         16th August 2012
6686       </div>
6687       <div class="body">
6688         <p>I dag fyller
6689 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
6690 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
6691 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
6692
6693       </div>
6694       <div class="tags">
6695
6696
6697         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>.
6698
6699
6700       </div>
6701     </div>
6702     <div class="padding"></div>
6703
6704     <div class="entry">
6705       <div class="title">
6706         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
6707       </div>
6708       <div class="date">
6709         24th June 2012
6710       </div>
6711       <div class="body">
6712         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
6713 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
6714 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
6715 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
6716 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
6717 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
6718 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
6719 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
6720 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
6721 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
6722 missing in my book.</p>
6723
6724 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
6725 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
6726 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
6727 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
6728 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
6729 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
6730 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
6731
6732       </div>
6733       <div class="tags">
6734
6735
6736         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>.
6737
6738
6739       </div>
6740     </div>
6741     <div class="padding"></div>
6742
6743     <div class="entry">
6744       <div class="title">
6745         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
6746       </div>
6747       <div class="date">
6748         21st November 2011
6749       </div>
6750       <div class="body">
6751         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
6752 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
6753 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
6754 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
6755 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
6756 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
6757 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
6758 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
6759 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
6760 the tools to do so.</p>
6761
6762 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
6763 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
6764 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
6765 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
6766
6767 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
6768 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
6769 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
6770 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
6771 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
6772 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
6773 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
6774 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
6775
6776 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
6777 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
6778 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
6779
6780 <p><pre>
6781 #!/usr/bin/perl
6782 use strict;
6783 use warnings;
6784 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
6785 BEGIN {
6786     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
6787     my %rhelmodules = (
6788         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
6789         );
6790     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
6791         eval "use $module;";
6792         if ($@) {
6793             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
6794             system("yum install -y $pkg");
6795             eval "use $module;";
6796         }
6797     }
6798 }
6799 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
6800
6801 upgrade_dell();
6802
6803 exit 0;
6804
6805 sub run_firmware_script {
6806     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
6807     unless ($script) {
6808         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
6809         exit 1
6810     }
6811     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
6812
6813     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
6814         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
6815     } else {
6816         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
6817     }
6818 }
6819
6820 sub run_firmware_scripts {
6821     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
6822     # Run firmware packages
6823     for my $dir (@dirs) {
6824         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
6825         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
6826         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
6827             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
6828             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
6829         }
6830         closedir $dh;
6831     }
6832 }
6833
6834 sub download {
6835     my $url = shift;
6836     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
6837     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
6838 }
6839
6840 sub upgrade_dell {
6841     my @dirs;
6842     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6843     chomp $product;
6844
6845     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
6846
6847         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
6848         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
6849
6850         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
6851             CLEANUP => 1
6852             );
6853         chdir($tmpdir);
6854         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
6855         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
6856         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
6857         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
6858         my $fwopts = "-q";
6859         if (@paths) {
6860             for my $url (@paths) {
6861                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
6862             }
6863             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
6864         } else {
6865             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6866             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6867         }
6868         chdir('/');
6869     } else {
6870         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6871         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6872     }
6873 }
6874
6875 sub fetch_dell_fw {
6876     my $path = shift;
6877     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
6878     download($url);
6879 }
6880
6881 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
6882 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
6883 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
6884 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
6885     my $filename = shift;
6886
6887     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6888     chomp $product;
6889     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
6890
6891     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
6892
6893     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
6894     my @paths;
6895     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
6896         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
6897         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
6898         my $oscode;
6899         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
6900             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
6901         } else {
6902             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
6903         }
6904         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
6905         {
6906             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
6907         }
6908     }
6909     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
6910         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
6911
6912         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
6913         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
6914
6915         my $cpath = $component->{path};
6916         for my $path (@paths) {
6917             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
6918                 push(@paths, $cpath);
6919             }
6920         }
6921     }
6922     return @paths;
6923 }
6924 </pre>
6925
6926 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
6927 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
6928 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
6929 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
6930 outdated.</p>
6931
6932       </div>
6933       <div class="tags">
6934
6935
6936         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>.
6937
6938
6939       </div>
6940     </div>
6941     <div class="padding"></div>
6942
6943     <div class="entry">
6944       <div class="title">
6945         <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>
6946       </div>
6947       <div class="date">
6948          4th August 2011
6949       </div>
6950       <div class="body">
6951         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
6952 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
6953 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
6954 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
6955 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
6956 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
6957 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
6958 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
6959 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
6960
6961 <p><blockquote>
6962 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
6963 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
6964 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
6965 </blockquote></p>
6966
6967 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
6968 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
6969 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
6970 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
6971 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
6972 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
6973 hard to explain.</p>
6974
6975 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
6976 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
6977 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
6978 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
6979 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
6980 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
6981 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
6982 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
6983 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
6984 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
6985 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
6986 mode).</p>
6987
6988 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
6989 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
6990 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
6991 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
6992 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
6993 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
6994 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
6995 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
6996 after visiting single user mode.</p>
6997
6998 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
6999 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
7000 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
7001 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
7002 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
7003 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
7004 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
7005 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
7006
7007 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
7008 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
7009 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
7010
7011       </div>
7012       <div class="tags">
7013
7014
7015         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>.
7016
7017
7018       </div>
7019     </div>
7020     <div class="padding"></div>
7021
7022     <div class="entry">
7023       <div class="title">
7024         <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>
7025       </div>
7026       <div class="date">
7027         30th July 2011
7028       </div>
7029       <div class="body">
7030         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
7031 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
7032 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
7033 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
7034 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
7035 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
7036 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
7037 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
7038 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
7039 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
7040 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
7041 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
7042 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
7043
7044 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
7045 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
7046 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
7047 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
7048 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
7049 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
7050 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
7051 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
7052 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
7053
7054 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
7055 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
7056 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
7057 is presented.</p>
7058
7059 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
7060 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
7061 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
7062 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
7063 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
7064 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
7065 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
7066 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
7067 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
7068 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
7069 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
7070 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
7071 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
7072 find time to push this forward.</p>
7073
7074       </div>
7075       <div class="tags">
7076
7077
7078         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>.
7079
7080
7081       </div>
7082     </div>
7083     <div class="padding"></div>
7084
7085     <div class="entry">
7086       <div class="title">
7087         <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>
7088       </div>
7089       <div class="date">
7090         29th July 2011
7091       </div>
7092       <div class="body">
7093         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
7094 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
7095 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
7096 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
7097 issues.</p>
7098
7099 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
7100 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
7101 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
7102
7103 <ol>
7104
7105 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
7106 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
7107 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
7108 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
7109 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
7110 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
7111 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
7112 Debian.</li>
7113
7114 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
7115 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
7116 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
7117 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
7118 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
7119 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
7120 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
7121 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
7122 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
7123 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
7124 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
7125 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
7126 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
7127
7128 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
7129 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
7130 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
7131 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
7132 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
7133 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
7134 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
7135 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
7136 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
7137 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
7138
7139 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
7140 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
7141 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
7142 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
7143 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
7144 latter behaviour.</li>
7145
7146 </ol>
7147
7148 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
7149 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
7150 it do not matter much.</p>
7151
7152 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
7153 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
7154 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
7155
7156       </div>
7157       <div class="tags">
7158
7159
7160         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>.
7161
7162
7163       </div>
7164     </div>
7165     <div class="padding"></div>
7166
7167     <div class="entry">
7168       <div class="title">
7169         <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>
7170       </div>
7171       <div class="date">
7172         26th July 2011
7173       </div>
7174       <div class="body">
7175         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
7176 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
7177 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
7178 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
7179 security support for a few years.</p>
7180
7181 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
7182 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
7183 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
7184 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
7185 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
7186 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
7187 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
7188 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
7189 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
7190 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
7191 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
7192 easier in the future.</p>
7193
7194 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
7195 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
7196 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
7197 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
7198 do not have time for.</p>
7199
7200       </div>
7201       <div class="tags">
7202
7203
7204         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>.
7205
7206
7207       </div>
7208     </div>
7209     <div class="padding"></div>
7210
7211     <div class="entry">
7212       <div class="title">
7213         <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>
7214       </div>
7215       <div class="date">
7216          3rd April 2011
7217       </div>
7218       <div class="body">
7219         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
7220 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
7221 update in English.</p>
7222
7223 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
7224 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
7225 of the British service
7226 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
7227 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
7228 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
7229 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
7230 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
7231 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
7232 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
7233 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
7234 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
7235 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
7236 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
7237 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
7238 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
7239
7240 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
7241 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
7242 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
7243 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
7244 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
7245 public infrastructure.</p>
7246
7247 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
7248 such service?</p>
7249
7250       </div>
7251       <div class="tags">
7252
7253
7254         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>.
7255
7256
7257       </div>
7258     </div>
7259     <div class="padding"></div>
7260
7261     <div class="entry">
7262       <div class="title">
7263         <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>
7264       </div>
7265       <div class="date">
7266         28th January 2011
7267       </div>
7268       <div class="body">
7269         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
7270 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
7271 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
7272 available on the Internet, and check our locally
7273 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
7274 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
7275 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
7276 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
7277 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
7278 out which security holes were present in our free software
7279 collection.</p>
7280
7281 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
7282 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
7283 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
7284 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
7285 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
7286 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
7287 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
7288 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
7289 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
7290 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
7291 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
7292 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
7293 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
7294 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
7295 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
7296 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
7297
7298 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
7299 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
7300 check out, one could look up
7301 <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
7302 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
7303 The most recent one is
7304 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
7305 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
7306 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
7307
7308 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
7309 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
7310 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
7311 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
7312 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
7313 security issues out.</p>
7314
7315 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
7316 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
7317 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
7318 RHEL is providing
7319 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
7320 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
7321 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
7322
7323 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
7324 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
7325 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
7326 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
7327 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
7328 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
7329 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
7330 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
7331 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
7332 established soon.</p>
7333
7334 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
7335 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
7336 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
7337 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
7338 for their packages.</p>
7339
7340       </div>
7341       <div class="tags">
7342
7343
7344         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>.
7345
7346
7347       </div>
7348     </div>
7349     <div class="padding"></div>
7350
7351     <div class="entry">
7352       <div class="title">
7353         <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>
7354       </div>
7355       <div class="date">
7356         23rd January 2011
7357       </div>
7358       <div class="body">
7359         <p>In the
7360 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
7361 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
7362 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
7363 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
7364 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
7365 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
7366 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
7367 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
7368 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
7369 one of my machines like this:</p>
7370
7371 <pre>
7372 loaded modules:
7373 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
7374 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
7375 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
7376 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
7377 10de:03ec pata_amd
7378 10de:03f6 sata_nv
7379 1022:1103 k8temp
7380 109e:036e bttv
7381 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
7382 11ab:4364 sky2
7383 </pre>
7384
7385 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
7386 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
7387
7388 <pre>
7389 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
7390     echo loaded pci modules:
7391     (
7392         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
7393         for address in * ; do
7394             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7395                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7396                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7397                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
7398                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
7399                     echo "$id $module"
7400                 fi
7401             fi
7402         done
7403     )
7404     echo
7405 fi
7406 </pre>
7407
7408 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
7409 mappings:</p>
7410
7411 <pre>
7412 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
7413     echo loaded usb modules:
7414     (
7415         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
7416         for address in * ; do
7417             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7418                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7419                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7420                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
7421                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
7422                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
7423                         echo "$id $module"
7424                     fi
7425                 fi
7426             fi
7427         done
7428     )
7429     echo
7430 fi
7431 </pre>
7432
7433 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
7434 well.</p>
7435
7436       </div>
7437       <div class="tags">
7438
7439
7440         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>.
7441
7442
7443       </div>
7444     </div>
7445     <div class="padding"></div>
7446
7447     <div class="entry">
7448       <div class="title">
7449         <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>
7450       </div>
7451       <div class="date">
7452         22nd December 2010
7453       </div>
7454       <div class="body">
7455         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
7456 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
7457 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
7458 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
7459 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
7460 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
7461 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
7462 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
7463 university.</p>
7464
7465 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
7466 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
7467 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
7468 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
7469 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
7470 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
7471 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
7472 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
7473
7474 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
7475 I perform on a new model.</p>
7476
7477 <ul>
7478
7479 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
7480 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
7481 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
7482
7483 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
7484 installation, X.org is working.</li>
7485
7486 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
7487 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
7488 reported by the program.</li>
7489
7490 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
7491 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
7492 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
7493 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
7494 normally test this by playing
7495 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
7496 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
7497
7498 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
7499 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
7500
7501 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
7502 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
7503
7504 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
7505 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
7506
7507 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
7508 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
7509 few.</li>
7510
7511 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
7512 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
7513 notice this.</li>
7514
7515 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
7516 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
7517 resume.</li>
7518
7519 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
7520 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
7521 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
7522 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
7523 not.</li>
7524
7525 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
7526 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
7527 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
7528 existence.</li>
7529
7530 </ul>
7531
7532 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
7533 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
7534 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
7535 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
7536 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
7537 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
7538 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
7539 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
7540
7541       </div>
7542       <div class="tags">
7543
7544
7545         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>.
7546
7547
7548       </div>
7549     </div>
7550     <div class="padding"></div>
7551
7552     <div class="entry">
7553       <div class="title">
7554         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
7555       </div>
7556       <div class="date">
7557         11th December 2010
7558       </div>
7559       <div class="body">
7560         <p>As I continue to explore
7561 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
7562 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
7563 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
7564
7565 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
7566 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
7567 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
7568 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
7569 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
7570 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
7571 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
7572 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
7573 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
7574 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
7575 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
7576 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
7577 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
7578 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
7579 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
7580 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
7581 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
7582 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
7583 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
7584 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
7585
7586 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
7587 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
7588 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
7589 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
7590 If the Skolelinux foundation
7591 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
7592 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
7593 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
7594 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
7595 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
7596 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
7597 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
7598 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
7599
7600 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
7601 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
7602 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
7603 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
7604 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
7605 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
7606 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
7607 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
7608 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
7609 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
7610 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
7611 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
7612 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
7613 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
7614 currencies.</p>
7615
7616 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
7617 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
7618 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
7619 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
7620 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
7621 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
7622 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
7623 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
7624 BitCoins.  Check out
7625 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
7626 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
7627 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
7628 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
7629 yet.</p>
7630
7631 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
7632 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
7633 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
7634 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
7635 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
7636
7637       </div>
7638       <div class="tags">
7639
7640
7641         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>.
7642
7643
7644       </div>
7645     </div>
7646     <div class="padding"></div>
7647
7648     <div class="entry">
7649       <div class="title">
7650         <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>
7651       </div>
7652       <div class="date">
7653         10th December 2010
7654       </div>
7655       <div class="body">
7656         <p>With this weeks lawless
7657 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
7658 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
7659 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
7660 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
7661 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
7662 A blog post from
7663 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
7664 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
7665 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
7666 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
7667 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
7668 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
7669 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
7670
7671 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
7672 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
7673 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
7674 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
7675 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
7676 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
7677 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
7678 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
7679 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
7680 Debian</a> soon.</p>
7681
7682 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
7683 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
7684 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
7685 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
7686 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
7687 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
7688 you can even get
7689 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
7690 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
7691 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
7692 on the current exchange rates.</p>
7693
7694 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
7695 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
7696 donations to the address
7697 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
7698
7699       </div>
7700       <div class="tags">
7701
7702
7703         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>.
7704
7705
7706       </div>
7707     </div>
7708     <div class="padding"></div>
7709
7710     <div class="entry">
7711       <div class="title">
7712         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
7713       </div>
7714       <div class="date">
7715         27th November 2010
7716       </div>
7717       <div class="body">
7718         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
7719 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
7720 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
7721 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
7722 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
7723 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
7724 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
7725 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
7726
7727 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
7728 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7729 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
7730 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
7731 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
7732 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
7733 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
7734 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
7735 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
7736 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
7737 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
7738
7739 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
7740 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
7741 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
7742 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
7743 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
7744 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
7745 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
7746 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
7747 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
7748 what is going on.</p>
7749
7750       </div>
7751       <div class="tags">
7752
7753
7754         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>.
7755
7756
7757       </div>
7758     </div>
7759     <div class="padding"></div>
7760
7761     <div class="entry">
7762       <div class="title">
7763         <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>
7764       </div>
7765       <div class="date">
7766         22nd November 2010
7767       </div>
7768       <div class="body">
7769         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
7770 upgrade testing of the
7771 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7772 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
7773 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
7774 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
7775
7776 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
7777
7778 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7779
7780 <blockquote><p>
7781   apache2.2-bin
7782   aptdaemon
7783   baobab
7784   binfmt-support
7785   browser-plugin-gnash
7786   cheese-common
7787   cli-common
7788   cups-pk-helper
7789   dmz-cursor-theme
7790   empathy
7791   empathy-common
7792   freedesktop-sound-theme
7793   freeglut3
7794   gconf-defaults-service
7795   gdm-themes
7796   gedit-plugins
7797   geoclue
7798   geoclue-hostip
7799   geoclue-localnet
7800   geoclue-manual
7801   geoclue-yahoo
7802   gnash
7803   gnash-common
7804   gnome
7805   gnome-backgrounds
7806   gnome-cards-data
7807   gnome-codec-install
7808   gnome-core
7809   gnome-desktop-environment
7810   gnome-disk-utility
7811   gnome-screenshot
7812   gnome-search-tool
7813   gnome-session-canberra
7814   gnome-system-log
7815   gnome-themes-extras
7816   gnome-themes-more
7817   gnome-user-share
7818   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7819   gstreamer0.10-tools
7820   gtk2-engines
7821   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7822   gtk2-engines-smooth
7823   hamster-applet
7824   libapache2-mod-dnssd
7825   libapr1
7826   libaprutil1
7827   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
7828   libaprutil1-ldap
7829   libart2.0-cil
7830   libboost-date-time1.42.0
7831   libboost-python1.42.0
7832   libboost-thread1.42.0
7833   libchamplain-0.4-0
7834   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
7835   libcheese-gtk18
7836   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7837   libcryptui0
7838   libdiscid0
7839   libelf1
7840   libepc-1.0-2
7841   libepc-common
7842   libepc-ui-1.0-2
7843   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7844   libfreerdp0
7845   libgconf2.0-cil
7846   libgdata-common
7847   libgdata7
7848   libgdu-gtk0
7849   libgee2
7850   libgeoclue0
7851   libgexiv2-0
7852   libgif4
7853   libglade2.0-cil
7854   libglib2.0-cil
7855   libgmime2.4-cil
7856   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7857   libgnome2.24-cil
7858   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
7859   libgpod-common
7860   libgpod4
7861   libgtk2.0-cil
7862   libgtkglext1
7863   libgtksourceview2.0-common
7864   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7865   libmono-addins0.2-cil
7866   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
7867   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7868   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
7869   libmono-posix2.0-cil
7870   libmono-security2.0-cil
7871   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7872   libmono-system2.0-cil
7873   libmtp8
7874   libmusicbrainz3-6
7875   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
7876   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
7877   libopal3.6.8
7878   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
7879   libpt2.6.7
7880   libpython2.6
7881   librpm1
7882   librpmio1
7883   libsdl1.2debian
7884   libsrtp0
7885   libssh-4
7886   libtelepathy-farsight0
7887   libtelepathy-glib0
7888   libtidy-0.99-0
7889   media-player-info
7890   mesa-utils
7891   mono-2.0-gac
7892   mono-gac
7893   mono-runtime
7894   nautilus-sendto
7895   nautilus-sendto-empathy
7896   p7zip-full
7897   pkg-config
7898   python-aptdaemon
7899   python-aptdaemon-gtk
7900   python-axiom
7901   python-beautifulsoup
7902   python-bugbuddy
7903   python-clientform
7904   python-coherence
7905   python-configobj
7906   python-crypto
7907   python-cupshelpers
7908   python-elementtree
7909   python-epsilon
7910   python-evolution
7911   python-feedparser
7912   python-gdata
7913   python-gdbm
7914   python-gst0.10
7915   python-gtkglext1
7916   python-gtksourceview2
7917   python-httplib2
7918   python-louie
7919   python-mako
7920   python-markupsafe
7921   python-mechanize
7922   python-nevow
7923   python-notify
7924   python-opengl
7925   python-openssl
7926   python-pam
7927   python-pkg-resources
7928   python-pyasn1
7929   python-pysqlite2
7930   python-rdflib
7931   python-serial
7932   python-tagpy
7933   python-twisted-bin
7934   python-twisted-conch
7935   python-twisted-core
7936   python-twisted-web
7937   python-utidylib
7938   python-webkit
7939   python-xdg
7940   python-zope.interface
7941   remmina
7942   remmina-plugin-data
7943   remmina-plugin-rdp
7944   remmina-plugin-vnc
7945   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7946   rhythmbox-plugins
7947   rpm-common
7948   rpm2cpio
7949   seahorse-plugins
7950   shotwell
7951   software-center
7952   system-config-printer-udev
7953   telepathy-gabble
7954   telepathy-mission-control-5
7955   telepathy-salut
7956   tomboy
7957   totem
7958   totem-coherence
7959   totem-mozilla
7960   totem-plugins
7961   transmission-common
7962   xdg-user-dirs
7963   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
7964   xserver-xephyr
7965 </p></blockquote>
7966
7967 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7968
7969 <blockquote><p>
7970   cheese
7971   ekiga
7972   eog
7973   epiphany-extensions
7974   evolution-exchange
7975   fast-user-switch-applet
7976   file-roller
7977   gcalctool
7978   gconf-editor
7979   gdm
7980   gedit
7981   gedit-common
7982   gnome-games
7983   gnome-games-data
7984   gnome-nettool
7985   gnome-system-tools
7986   gnome-themes
7987   gnuchess
7988   gucharmap
7989   guile-1.8-libs
7990   libavahi-ui0
7991   libdmx1
7992   libgalago3
7993   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7994   libgtksourceview2.0-0
7995   liblircclient0
7996   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
7997   libspeexdsp1
7998   libsvga1
7999   rhythmbox
8000   seahorse
8001   sound-juicer
8002   system-config-printer
8003   totem-common
8004   transmission-gtk
8005   vinagre
8006   vino
8007 </p></blockquote>
8008
8009 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8010
8011 <blockquote><p>
8012   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8013 </p></blockquote>
8014
8015 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8016
8017 <blockquote><p>
8018 [nothing]
8019 </p></blockquote>
8020
8021 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
8022
8023 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8024
8025 <blockquote><p>
8026   ksmserver
8027 </p></blockquote>
8028
8029 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8030
8031 <blockquote><p>
8032   kwin
8033   network-manager-kde
8034 </p></blockquote>
8035
8036 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8037
8038 <blockquote><p>
8039   arts
8040   dolphin
8041   freespacenotifier
8042   google-gadgets-gst
8043   google-gadgets-xul
8044   kappfinder
8045   kcalc
8046   kcharselect
8047   kde-core
8048   kde-plasma-desktop
8049   kde-standard
8050   kde-window-manager
8051   kdeartwork
8052   kdeartwork-emoticons
8053   kdeartwork-style
8054   kdeartwork-theme-icon
8055   kdebase
8056   kdebase-apps
8057   kdebase-workspace
8058   kdebase-workspace-bin
8059   kdebase-workspace-data
8060   kdeeject
8061   kdelibs
8062   kdeplasma-addons
8063   kdeutils
8064   kdewallpapers
8065   kdf
8066   kfloppy
8067   kgpg
8068   khelpcenter4
8069   kinfocenter
8070   konq-plugins-l10n
8071   konqueror-nsplugins
8072   kscreensaver
8073   kscreensaver-xsavers
8074   ktimer
8075   kwrite
8076   libgle3
8077   libkde4-ruby1.8
8078   libkonq5
8079   libkonq5-templates
8080   libnetpbm10
8081   libplasma-ruby
8082   libplasma-ruby1.8
8083   libqt4-ruby1.8
8084   marble-data
8085   marble-plugins
8086   netpbm
8087   nuvola-icon-theme
8088   plasma-dataengines-workspace
8089   plasma-desktop
8090   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
8091   plasma-runners-addons
8092   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
8093   plasma-scriptengine-python
8094   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
8095   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
8096   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
8097   plasma-scriptengines
8098   plasma-wallpapers-addons
8099   plasma-widget-folderview
8100   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8101   ruby
8102   sweeper
8103   update-notifier-kde
8104   xscreensaver-data-extra
8105   xscreensaver-gl
8106   xscreensaver-gl-extra
8107   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8108 </p></blockquote>
8109
8110 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8111
8112 <blockquote><p>
8113   ark
8114   google-gadgets-common
8115   google-gadgets-qt
8116   htdig
8117   kate
8118   kdebase-bin
8119   kdebase-data
8120   kdepasswd
8121   kfind
8122   klipper
8123   konq-plugins
8124   konqueror
8125   ksysguard
8126   ksysguardd
8127   libarchive1
8128   libcln6
8129   libeet1
8130   libeina-svn-06
8131   libggadget-1.0-0b
8132   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
8133   libgps19
8134   libkdecorations4
8135   libkephal4
8136   libkonq4
8137   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
8138   libkscreensaver5
8139   libksgrd4
8140   libksignalplotter4
8141   libkunitconversion4
8142   libkwineffects1a
8143   libmarblewidget4
8144   libntrack-qt4-1
8145   libntrack0
8146   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
8147   libplasmaclock4a
8148   libplasmagenericshell4
8149   libprocesscore4a
8150   libprocessui4a
8151   libqalculate5
8152   libqedje0a
8153   libqtruby4shared2
8154   libqzion0a
8155   libruby1.8
8156   libscim8c2a
8157   libsmokekdecore4-3
8158   libsmokekdeui4-3
8159   libsmokekfile3
8160   libsmokekhtml3
8161   libsmokekio3
8162   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
8163   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
8164   libsmokekparts3
8165   libsmokektexteditor3
8166   libsmokekutils3
8167   libsmokenepomuk3
8168   libsmokephonon3
8169   libsmokeplasma3
8170   libsmokeqtcore4-3
8171   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
8172   libsmokeqtgui4-3
8173   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
8174   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
8175   libsmokeqtscript4-3
8176   libsmokeqtsql4-3
8177   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
8178   libsmokeqttest4-3
8179   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
8180   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
8181   libsmokeqtxml4-3
8182   libsmokesolid3
8183   libsmokesoprano3
8184   libtaskmanager4a
8185   libtidy-0.99-0
8186   libweather-ion4a
8187   libxklavier16
8188   libxxf86misc1
8189   okteta
8190   oxygencursors
8191   plasma-dataengines-addons
8192   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
8193   plasma-widget-lancelot
8194   plasma-widgets-addons
8195   plasma-widgets-workspace
8196   polkit-kde-1
8197   ruby1.8
8198   systemsettings
8199   update-notifier-common
8200 </p></blockquote>
8201
8202 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
8203 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
8204 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
8205 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
8206
8207       </div>
8208       <div class="tags">
8209
8210
8211         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>.
8212
8213
8214       </div>
8215     </div>
8216     <div class="padding"></div>
8217
8218     <div class="entry">
8219       <div class="title">
8220         <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>
8221       </div>
8222       <div class="date">
8223         22nd November 2010
8224       </div>
8225       <div class="body">
8226         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
8227 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
8228 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
8229 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
8230 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
8231 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
8232 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
8233 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
8234 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
8235
8236 <p>I found
8237 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
8238 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
8239 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
8240 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
8241 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
8242 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
8243
8244 <pre>
8245 #!/bin/sh
8246
8247 # Based on
8248 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
8249
8250 set -e
8251 set -x
8252
8253 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
8254     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
8255     exit 1
8256 else
8257     host="$1"
8258 fi
8259
8260 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
8261     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
8262     exit 1
8263 fi
8264
8265 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
8266 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
8267 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
8268 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
8269
8270 img=$host.img
8271 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
8272 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
8273
8274 parted $img mklabel msdos
8275 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
8276 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
8277 parted $img set 1 boot on
8278
8279 modprobe dm-mod
8280 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
8281 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
8282
8283 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
8284 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
8285 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
8286
8287 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
8288 losetup -d /dev/loop0
8289 </pre>
8290
8291 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
8292 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
8293
8294 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
8295 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
8296 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
8297 seem to work just fine.</p>
8298
8299       </div>
8300       <div class="tags">
8301
8302
8303         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>.
8304
8305
8306       </div>
8307     </div>
8308     <div class="padding"></div>
8309
8310     <div class="entry">
8311       <div class="title">
8312         <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>
8313       </div>
8314       <div class="date">
8315         20th November 2010
8316       </div>
8317       <div class="body">
8318         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
8319 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8320 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
8321 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
8322
8323 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
8324 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
8325 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
8326
8327 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8328
8329 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8330
8331 <blockquote><p>
8332   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
8333   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
8334   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
8335   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
8336   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
8337   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
8338   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
8339   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
8340   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
8341   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
8342   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8343   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8344   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
8345   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
8346   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
8347   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
8348   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
8349   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
8350   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8351   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
8352   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
8353   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8354   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
8355   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
8356   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
8357   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8358   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8359   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
8360   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8361   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
8362   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
8363   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8364   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
8365   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
8366   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
8367   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
8368   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
8369   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
8370   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
8371   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
8372   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
8373   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
8374   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
8375   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
8376   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
8377   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
8378   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
8379   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
8380   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
8381   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
8382   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
8383   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
8384   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8385   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
8386   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
8387   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
8388   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
8389   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
8390   zip
8391 </p></blockquote>
8392
8393 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
8394
8395 <blockquote><p>
8396   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
8397   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
8398   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
8399   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
8400   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
8401   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
8402   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
8403   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
8404   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
8405   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
8406   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
8407   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8408   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
8409   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8410   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
8411   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
8412   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8413   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
8414   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
8415   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
8416   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
8417   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
8418   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
8419   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
8420   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
8421   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
8422   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
8423   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
8424   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
8425 </p></blockquote>
8426
8427 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8428
8429 <blockquote><p>
8430   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8431 </p></blockquote>
8432
8433 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8434
8435 <blockquote><p>
8436 [nothing]
8437 </p></blockquote>
8438
8439 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
8440
8441 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8442
8443 <blockquote><p>
8444   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
8445   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8446   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
8447   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
8448   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
8449   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
8450   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8451   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
8452   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
8453   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8454   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
8455   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
8456   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
8457   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
8458   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
8459   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
8460   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
8461   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
8462   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
8463   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
8464   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
8465   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
8466   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
8467   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
8468   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
8469   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
8470   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
8471   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
8472   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
8473   ttf-sazanami-gothic
8474 </p></blockquote>
8475
8476 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8477
8478 <blockquote><p>
8479   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
8480   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
8481   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
8482   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
8483   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
8484   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
8485   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
8486   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
8487   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
8488   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
8489   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
8490   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
8491   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
8492   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
8493   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8494   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8495   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
8496   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
8497   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8498   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
8499   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
8500   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
8501   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8502   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8503   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
8504   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
8505   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
8506   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
8507   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
8508   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
8509   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
8510   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
8511   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
8512 </p></blockquote>
8513
8514 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8515
8516 <blockquote><p>
8517   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
8518   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
8519   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
8520   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
8521   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8522   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
8523   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8524 </p></blockquote>
8525
8526 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8527
8528 <blockquote><p>
8529   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
8530 </p></blockquote>
8531
8532       </div>
8533       <div class="tags">
8534
8535
8536         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>.
8537
8538
8539       </div>
8540     </div>
8541     <div class="padding"></div>
8542
8543     <div class="entry">
8544       <div class="title">
8545         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
8546       </div>
8547       <div class="date">
8548         20th November 2010
8549       </div>
8550       <div class="body">
8551         <p>Answering
8552 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
8553 call from the Gnash project</a> for
8554 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
8555 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
8556 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
8557 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
8558 releases out more often.</p>
8559
8560 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
8561 I have considered setting up a <a
8562 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
8563 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
8564 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
8565 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
8566 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
8567 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
8568 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
8569 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
8570 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
8571 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
8572 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
8573 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
8574
8575       </div>
8576       <div class="tags">
8577
8578
8579         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>.
8580
8581
8582       </div>
8583     </div>
8584     <div class="padding"></div>
8585
8586     <div class="entry">
8587       <div class="title">
8588         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
8589       </div>
8590       <div class="date">
8591          9th November 2010
8592       </div>
8593       <div class="body">
8594         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
8595
8596 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
8597 3D linked in from
8598 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
8599 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
8600
8601       </div>
8602       <div class="tags">
8603
8604
8605         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>.
8606
8607
8608       </div>
8609     </div>
8610     <div class="padding"></div>
8611
8612     <div class="entry">
8613       <div class="title">
8614         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
8615       </div>
8616       <div class="date">
8617         24th October 2010
8618       </div>
8619       <div class="body">
8620         <p>Some updates.</p>
8621
8622 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
8623 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
8624 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
8625 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
8626 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
8627 :)</p>
8628
8629 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
8630 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
8631 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
8632 It is called
8633 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
8634 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
8635 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
8636 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
8637 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
8638 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
8639
8640 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
8641 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
8642 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
8643 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
8644 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
8645 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
8646 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
8647 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
8648 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
8649 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
8650
8651       </div>
8652       <div class="tags">
8653
8654
8655         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>.
8656
8657
8658       </div>
8659     </div>
8660     <div class="padding"></div>
8661
8662     <div class="entry">
8663       <div class="title">
8664         <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>
8665       </div>
8666       <div class="date">
8667          4th September 2010
8668       </div>
8669       <div class="body">
8670         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
8671 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
8672 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
8673 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
8674 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
8675 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
8676 installed.</p>
8677
8678 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
8679 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
8680 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
8681 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
8682 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8683 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
8684 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
8685 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
8686 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
8687
8688 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
8689 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
8690 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
8691 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
8692 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
8693 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
8694 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
8695 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
8696 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
8697 pages they want to visit.</p>
8698
8699 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
8700 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
8701 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
8702 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
8703 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
8704 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
8705 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
8706 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
8707 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
8708 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
8709 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
8710
8711       </div>
8712       <div class="tags">
8713
8714
8715         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>.
8716
8717
8718       </div>
8719     </div>
8720     <div class="padding"></div>
8721
8722     <div class="entry">
8723       <div class="title">
8724         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
8725       </div>
8726       <div class="date">
8727         27th July 2010
8728       </div>
8729       <div class="body">
8730         <p>I discovered this while doing
8731 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
8732 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
8733 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
8734 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
8735 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
8736
8737 <p>An example is from todays
8738 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
8739 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
8740 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
8741 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
8742 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
8743 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
8744 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
8745
8746 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
8747
8748 <blockquote><pre>
8749 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
8750  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
8751   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
8752 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
8753  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
8754 </pre></blockquote>
8755
8756 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
8757 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
8758 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
8759 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
8760 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
8761 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
8762 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
8763 of dependency loops.</p>
8764
8765 <p>Thanks to
8766 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
8767 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
8768 dependencies
8769 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
8770 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
8771
8772 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
8773 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
8774 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
8775 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
8776 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
8777 it.</p>
8778
8779       </div>
8780       <div class="tags">
8781
8782
8783         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>.
8784
8785
8786       </div>
8787     </div>
8788     <div class="padding"></div>
8789
8790     <div class="entry">
8791       <div class="title">
8792         <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>
8793       </div>
8794       <div class="date">
8795         17th July 2010
8796       </div>
8797       <div class="body">
8798         <p>This is a
8799 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
8800 on my
8801 <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
8802 work</a> on
8803 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
8804 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
8805
8806 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
8807 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
8808 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
8809 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
8810
8811 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
8812 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
8813 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
8814
8815 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
8816
8817 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
8818 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
8819 the web.
8820
8821 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
8822 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
8823 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
8824 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
8825 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
8826 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
8827
8828 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
8829 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
8830 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
8831 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
8832 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
8833 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
8834 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
8835 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
8836 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
8837 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
8838 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
8839 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
8840 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
8841 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
8842 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
8843 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
8844
8845 <blockquote><pre>
8846 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8847   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8848   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8849   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8850   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8851   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8852   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8853
8854 ldapsearch -h ldap \
8855   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
8856   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
8857   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
8858   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
8859   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
8860 </pre></blockquote>
8861
8862 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
8863 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
8864 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
8865 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8866 also exist.</p>
8867
8868 <blockquote><pre>
8869 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8870 objectclass: top
8871 objectclass: dnsdomain
8872 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8873 dc: tjener
8874 arecord: 10.0.2.2
8875 associateddomain: tjener.intern
8876
8877 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8878 objectclass: top
8879 objectclass: dnsdomain2
8880 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
8881 dc: 2
8882 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
8883 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
8884 </pre></blockquote>
8885
8886 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
8887 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
8888 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
8889 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
8890 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
8891 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
8892 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
8893 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
8894 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
8895 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
8896 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
8897 instead.</p>
8898
8899 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
8900 like this:</p>
8901
8902 <blockquote><pre>
8903 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8904   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
8905   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
8906   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
8907   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
8908   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
8909
8910 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
8911   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
8912 </pre></blockquote>
8913
8914 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
8915 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
8916 reverse lookups.</p>
8917
8918 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
8919 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
8920 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
8921 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
8922
8923 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
8924 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
8925 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
8926
8927 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
8928 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
8929 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
8930 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
8931 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
8932
8933 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
8934 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
8935 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
8936 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
8937 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
8938
8939 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
8940 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
8941 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
8942 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
8943 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
8944 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
8945
8946 <blockquote><pre>
8947 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
8948     SUP top
8949     AUXILIARY
8950     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
8951           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
8952           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
8953           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
8954           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
8955     ))
8956 </pre></blockquote>
8957
8958 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
8959 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
8960 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
8961 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
8962 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
8963 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
8964
8965 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
8966
8967 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
8968 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
8969 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
8970 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
8971 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
8972
8973 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
8974 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
8975 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
8976 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
8977
8978 <blockquote><pre>
8979 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
8980 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
8981 </pre></blockquote>
8982
8983 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
8984 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
8985 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
8986 search result is this entry:</p>
8987
8988 <blockquote><pre>
8989 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8990 cn: dhcp
8991 objectClass: top
8992 objectClass: dhcpServer
8993 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8994 </pre></blockquote>
8995
8996 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
8997 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
8998 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
8999 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
9000 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
9001 The search result is this entry:</p>
9002
9003 <blockquote><pre>
9004 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9005 cn: DHCP Config
9006 objectClass: top
9007 objectClass: dhcpService
9008 objectClass: dhcpOptions
9009 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9010 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
9011 dhcpStatements: authoritative
9012 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
9013 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
9014 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
9015 </pre></blockquote>
9016
9017 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
9018 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
9019 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
9020 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
9021 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
9022 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
9023 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
9024 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
9025 related computer objects.</p>
9026
9027 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
9028 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
9029 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
9030 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
9031 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
9032 like:</p>
9033
9034 <blockquote><pre>
9035 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9036 cn: hostname
9037 objectClass: top
9038 objectClass: dhcpHost
9039 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9040 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
9041 </pre></blockquote>
9042
9043 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
9044 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
9045 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
9046 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
9047 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
9048 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
9049 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
9050 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
9051 structural object class.
9052
9053 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
9054
9055 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
9056 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
9057 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
9058 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
9059 in the configuration.</p>
9060
9061 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
9062 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
9063 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
9064 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
9065 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
9066 structure.</p>
9067
9068 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
9069 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
9070
9071 <blockquote><pre>
9072 ou=services
9073   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
9074     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
9075     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9076       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9077         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9078     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9079       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9080         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9081     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
9082       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
9083 </pre></blockquote>
9084
9085 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
9086 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
9087 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
9088 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
9089
9090 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
9091 like this:</p>
9092
9093 <blockquote><pre>
9094 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9095 dc: hostname
9096 objectClass: top
9097 objectClass: dhcpHost
9098 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9099 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
9100 associateddomain: hostname.intern
9101 arecord: 10.11.12.13
9102 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9103 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
9104 </pre></blockquote>
9105
9106 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
9107 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
9108 auxiliary object class.</p>
9109
9110       </div>
9111       <div class="tags">
9112
9113
9114         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>.
9115
9116
9117       </div>
9118     </div>
9119     <div class="padding"></div>
9120
9121     <div class="entry">
9122       <div class="title">
9123         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
9124       </div>
9125       <div class="date">
9126         14th July 2010
9127       </div>
9128       <div class="body">
9129         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
9130 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
9131 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
9132 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
9133 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
9134
9135 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
9136 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
9137
9138 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
9139 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
9140 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
9141 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
9142 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
9143 to a slave DNS server.</p>
9144
9145 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
9146 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
9147 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
9148 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
9149 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
9150 seem to work.</p>
9151
9152 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
9153 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
9154 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
9155 this:</p>
9156
9157 <blockquote><pre>
9158   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9159   cn: hostname
9160   objectClass: dhcphost
9161   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9162   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
9163   associateddomain: hostname.intern
9164   arecord: 10.11.12.13
9165   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9166   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
9167   ldapconfigsound: Y
9168 </pre></blockquote>
9169
9170 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
9171 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
9172 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
9173 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
9174
9175 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
9176 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
9177 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
9178 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
9179 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
9180 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
9181 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
9182 might be a good place to put it.</p>
9183
9184 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9185 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9186
9187       </div>
9188       <div class="tags">
9189
9190
9191         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>.
9192
9193
9194       </div>
9195     </div>
9196     <div class="padding"></div>
9197
9198     <div class="entry">
9199       <div class="title">
9200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
9201       </div>
9202       <div class="date">
9203         11th July 2010
9204       </div>
9205       <div class="body">
9206         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
9207 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
9208 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
9209 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
9210
9211 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
9212 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
9213 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
9214 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
9215 LTSP clients.</p>
9216
9217 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
9218 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
9219 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
9220
9221 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
9222 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
9223 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
9224
9225 <blockquote><pre>
9226 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
9227 #
9228 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
9229 #
9230 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
9231 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
9232 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
9233 #
9234 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
9235 # existence of attribute names.
9236 #
9237 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
9238 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
9239 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
9240 #
9241 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
9242 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
9243 #
9244 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
9245 #     SUP top
9246 #     AUXILIARY
9247 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
9248
9249 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
9250 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
9251     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
9252     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
9253         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
9254         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
9255             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
9256             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
9257             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
9258             # bass value on to clients
9259             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
9260         done
9261     done
9262 fi
9263 </pre></blockquote>
9264
9265 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
9266 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
9267 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
9268 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
9269 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
9270
9271 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9272 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9273
9274 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
9275 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
9276 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
9277 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
9278 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
9279 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
9280
9281       </div>
9282       <div class="tags">
9283
9284
9285         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>.
9286
9287
9288       </div>
9289     </div>
9290     <div class="padding"></div>
9291
9292     <div class="entry">
9293       <div class="title">
9294         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9295       </div>
9296       <div class="date">
9297          9th July 2010
9298       </div>
9299       <div class="body">
9300         <p>Since
9301 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
9302 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
9303 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
9304 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
9305 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
9306 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
9307 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
9308 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
9309 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
9310 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
9311 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
9312 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
9313 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
9314
9315       </div>
9316       <div class="tags">
9317
9318
9319         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>.
9320
9321
9322       </div>
9323     </div>
9324     <div class="padding"></div>
9325
9326     <div class="entry">
9327       <div class="title">
9328         <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>
9329       </div>
9330       <div class="date">
9331          3rd July 2010
9332       </div>
9333       <div class="body">
9334         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
9335 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
9336 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
9337 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
9338 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
9339 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
9340 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
9341 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
9342
9343 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
9344 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
9345 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
9346 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
9347 publish the difference.</p>
9348
9349 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9350
9351 <blockquote><p>
9352   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9353   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
9354   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
9355   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9356   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
9357   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9358   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
9359   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
9360 </p></blockquote>
9361
9362 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9363
9364 <blockquote><p>
9365   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
9366   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
9367   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
9368   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
9369   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
9370   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
9371   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9372   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9373   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9374   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9375   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
9376   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
9377   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
9378   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
9379   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
9380   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9381   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
9382   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
9383   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
9384   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
9385 </p></blockquote>
9386
9387 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9388
9389 <blockquote><p>
9390   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
9391   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
9392   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9393   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9394   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
9395   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
9396   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
9397   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9398   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9399   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9400   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9401   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
9402   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
9403   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
9404   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
9405   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
9406   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
9407   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
9408   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
9409   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
9410   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
9411 </p></blockquote>
9412
9413 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9414
9415 <blockquote><p>
9416   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
9417   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
9418   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
9419 </p></blockquote>
9420
9421 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
9422 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
9423 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
9424 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
9425 the difference somewhat.
9426
9427       </div>
9428       <div class="tags">
9429
9430
9431         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>.
9432
9433
9434       </div>
9435     </div>
9436     <div class="padding"></div>
9437
9438     <div class="entry">
9439       <div class="title">
9440         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
9441       </div>
9442       <div class="date">
9443         28th June 2010
9444       </div>
9445       <div class="body">
9446         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
9447 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
9448 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
9449 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
9450 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
9451 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
9452 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
9453 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
9454 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
9455 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
9456
9457 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
9458 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
9459 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
9460 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
9461 released.</p>
9462
9463 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
9464 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
9465 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
9466 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
9467
9468 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
9469 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9470
9471 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
9472 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
9473 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
9474 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
9475 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
9476
9477       </div>
9478       <div class="tags">
9479
9480
9481         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>.
9482
9483
9484       </div>
9485     </div>
9486     <div class="padding"></div>
9487
9488     <div class="entry">
9489       <div class="title">
9490         <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>
9491       </div>
9492       <div class="date">
9493         24th June 2010
9494       </div>
9495       <div class="body">
9496         <p>A while back, I
9497 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
9498 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
9499 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
9500 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
9501
9502 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
9503 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
9504 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
9505 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
9506
9507 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
9508 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
9509 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
9510 Debian Edu.</p>
9511
9512 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
9513 the
9514 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
9515 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
9516 available today from IETF.</p>
9517
9518 <pre>
9519 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
9520 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
9521 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
9522  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
9523         NAME 'dhcpHost'
9524         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
9525 -       SUP top
9526 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
9527         MUST cn
9528         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
9529         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
9530 </pre>
9531
9532 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
9533 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
9534 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
9535
9536 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9537 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9538
9539       </div>
9540       <div class="tags">
9541
9542
9543         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>.
9544
9545
9546       </div>
9547     </div>
9548     <div class="padding"></div>
9549
9550     <div class="entry">
9551       <div class="title">
9552         <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>
9553       </div>
9554       <div class="date">
9555         16th June 2010
9556       </div>
9557       <div class="body">
9558         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
9559 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
9560 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
9561 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
9562 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
9563 this:
9564
9565 <blockquote><pre>
9566 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9567 tasksel --new-install
9568 </pre></blockquote>
9569
9570 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
9571 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
9572 any output what so ever.
9573
9574 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
9575 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
9576 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
9577 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
9578 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
9579 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
9580 code like this:
9581
9582 <blockquote><pre>
9583 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9584 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
9585 $cmd
9586 </pre></blockquote>
9587
9588 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
9589 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
9590 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
9591 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
9592 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
9593 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
9594 installation.</p>
9595
9596 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
9597 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
9598 like this.</p>
9599
9600       </div>
9601       <div class="tags">
9602
9603
9604         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>.
9605
9606
9607       </div>
9608     </div>
9609     <div class="padding"></div>
9610
9611     <div class="entry">
9612       <div class="title">
9613         <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>
9614       </div>
9615       <div class="date">
9616         13th June 2010
9617       </div>
9618       <div class="body">
9619         <p>My
9620 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
9621 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
9622 finally made the upgrade logs available from
9623 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
9624 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
9625 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
9626 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
9627
9628 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
9629 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
9630 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
9631 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
9632 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
9633 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
9634 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
9635 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
9636
9637 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
9638 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
9639 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
9640 too surprising.</p>
9641
9642 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
9643 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
9644 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
9645 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
9646 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
9647 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
9648 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
9649 continue.</p>
9650
9651 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
9652 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
9653   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
9654   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
9655   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
9656   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
9657   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
9658   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9659   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9660   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9661   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9662   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9663   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9664   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9665   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9666   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9667   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9668   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9669   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9670   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9671   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9672   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9673   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9674   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9675   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9676   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9677   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9678   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9679   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
9680   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
9681
9682 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
9683
9684 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
9685   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
9686   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
9687   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
9688   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9689   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
9690   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
9691   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
9692   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
9693   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
9694   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9695   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
9696   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9697   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
9698   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
9699   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
9700   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
9701   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
9702   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
9703   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
9704   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
9705   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
9706   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
9707   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
9708   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9709   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
9710   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
9711   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
9712   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
9713   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9714   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9715   zip</p>
9716
9717 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
9718
9719 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
9720   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
9721   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
9722   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
9723   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
9724   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
9725   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9726   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9727   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
9728   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
9729   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
9730   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
9731   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9732   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9733   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9734   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9735   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9736   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
9737   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
9738   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
9739   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
9740   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
9741   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
9742   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
9743   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
9744   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
9745   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
9746   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
9747
9748 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
9749 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
9750   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9751   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
9752   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
9753   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9754   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
9755   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
9756   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9757   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
9758   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
9759   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
9760   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
9761   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
9762   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
9763   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
9764   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
9765   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9766   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9767   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
9768   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
9769   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9770   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
9771   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
9772   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9773   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9774   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
9775   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
9776   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
9777   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
9778   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
9779   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
9780   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
9781   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
9782   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
9783   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
9784   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
9785   xulrunner-1.9</p>
9786
9787
9788       </div>
9789       <div class="tags">
9790
9791
9792         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>.
9793
9794
9795       </div>
9796     </div>
9797     <div class="padding"></div>
9798
9799     <div class="entry">
9800       <div class="title">
9801         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
9802       </div>
9803       <div class="date">
9804         11th June 2010
9805       </div>
9806       <div class="body">
9807         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
9808 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
9809 have been discovered and reported in the process
9810 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
9811 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
9812 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
9813 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
9814 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
9815
9816 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
9817 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
9818 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
9819 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
9820 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
9821 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
9822
9823 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
9824 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
9825 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9826 is created.  The bug report
9827 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
9828 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
9829 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
9830 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
9831 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
9832 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
9833 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
9834 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
9835 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
9836 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
9837 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
9838 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
9839 Debian Squeeze.</p>
9840
9841 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
9842 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
9843 trick:</p>
9844
9845 <blockquote><pre>
9846 #!/bin/sh
9847 set -ex
9848
9849 if [ "$1" ] ; then
9850     desktop=$1
9851 else
9852     desktop=gnome
9853 fi
9854
9855 from=lenny
9856 to=squeeze
9857
9858 exec &lt; /dev/null
9859 unset LANG
9860 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
9861 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
9862 fuser -mv .
9863 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
9864 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9865 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
9866 #!/bin/sh
9867 exit 101
9868 EOF
9869 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
9870 exit_cleanup() {
9871     umount $tmpdir/proc
9872 }
9873 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
9874 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
9875 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
9876
9877 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
9878
9879 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
9880 # to return the correct answers.
9881 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
9882     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
9883
9884 # Include the desktop and laptop task
9885 for test in desktop laptop ; do
9886     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
9887 #!/bin/sh
9888 exit 2
9889 EOF
9890     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
9891 done
9892
9893 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
9894 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
9895 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
9896 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
9897
9898 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
9899 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
9900 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
9901 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
9902 fuser -mv
9903 </pre></blockquote>
9904
9905 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
9906 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
9907 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
9908 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
9909 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
9910 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
9911
9912 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
9913 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
9914 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
9915 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
9916 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
9917 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
9918 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
9919
9920 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
9921 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
9922 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
9923 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
9924 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
9925 packages.</p>
9926
9927       </div>
9928       <div class="tags">
9929
9930
9931         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>.
9932
9933
9934       </div>
9935     </div>
9936     <div class="padding"></div>
9937
9938     <div class="entry">
9939       <div class="title">
9940         <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>
9941       </div>
9942       <div class="date">
9943          6th June 2010
9944       </div>
9945       <div class="body">
9946         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
9947 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
9948 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
9949 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
9950 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
9951 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
9952 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
9953
9954 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
9955 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
9956 COLUMNS):</p>
9957
9958 <blockquote><pre>
9959 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
9960 previous=N
9961 PREVLEVEL=
9962 RUNLEVEL=
9963 runlevel=S
9964 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
9965 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
9966 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
9967 </pre></blockquote>
9968
9969 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
9970 script.</p>
9971
9972 <blockquote><pre>
9973 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
9974 previous=N
9975 PREVLEVEL=N
9976 RUNLEVEL=S
9977 runlevel=S
9978 </pre></blockquote>
9979
9980 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
9981 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
9982 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
9983
9984 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
9985 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
9986 choice.</p>
9987
9988       </div>
9989       <div class="tags">
9990
9991
9992         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>.
9993
9994
9995       </div>
9996     </div>
9997     <div class="padding"></div>
9998
9999     <div class="entry">
10000       <div class="title">
10001         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
10002       </div>
10003       <div class="date">
10004          6th June 2010
10005       </div>
10006       <div class="body">
10007         <p>Via the
10008 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
10009 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
10010 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
10011 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
10012 following the standards wars of today.</p>
10013
10014       </div>
10015       <div class="tags">
10016
10017
10018         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>.
10019
10020
10021       </div>
10022     </div>
10023     <div class="padding"></div>
10024
10025     <div class="entry">
10026       <div class="title">
10027         <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>
10028       </div>
10029       <div class="date">
10030          3rd June 2010
10031       </div>
10032       <div class="body">
10033         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
10034 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
10035 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
10036 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
10037 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
10038
10039 <blockquote><pre>
10040 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
10041   vendor                    count
10042   Dell Computer Corporation     1
10043     PowerEdge 1750              1
10044   IBM                           1
10045     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
10046   Intel                         2
10047   [no-dmi-info]                 3
10048 maintainer:~#
10049 </pre></blockquote>
10050
10051 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
10052 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
10053 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
10054 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
10055 option to list the individual machines.</p>
10056
10057 <p>A larger list is
10058 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
10059 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
10060 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
10061 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
10062 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
10063 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
10064 collector.</p>
10065
10066       </div>
10067       <div class="tags">
10068
10069
10070         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>.
10071
10072
10073       </div>
10074     </div>
10075     <div class="padding"></div>
10076
10077     <div class="entry">
10078       <div class="title">
10079         <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>
10080       </div>
10081       <div class="date">
10082          1st June 2010
10083       </div>
10084       <div class="body">
10085         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
10086 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
10087 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
10088 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
10089 wait.</p>
10090
10091 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
10092 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
10093 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
10094 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
10095 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
10096 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
10097
10098 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
10099 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
10100 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
10101 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
10102 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
10103 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
10104 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
10105 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
10106
10107 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
10108
10109       </div>
10110       <div class="tags">
10111
10112
10113         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>.
10114
10115
10116       </div>
10117     </div>
10118     <div class="padding"></div>
10119
10120     <div class="entry">
10121       <div class="title">
10122         <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>
10123       </div>
10124       <div class="date">
10125         27th May 2010
10126       </div>
10127       <div class="body">
10128         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
10129 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
10130 issues are known and should be solved:
10131
10132 <p><ul>
10133
10134 <li>The wicd package seen to
10135 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
10136 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
10137 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
10138 seem to be on the case.</li>
10139
10140 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
10141 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
10142 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
10143 maintainer is on the case.</li>
10144
10145 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
10146 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
10147 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
10148 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
10149 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
10150 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
10151 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
10152 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
10153
10154 </ul></p>
10155
10156 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
10157 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
10158 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
10159 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
10160
10161 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10162 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10163 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10164 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10165
10166 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
10167
10168       </div>
10169       <div class="tags">
10170
10171
10172         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>.
10173
10174
10175       </div>
10176     </div>
10177     <div class="padding"></div>
10178
10179     <div class="entry">
10180       <div class="title">
10181         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
10182       </div>
10183       <div class="date">
10184         22nd May 2010
10185       </div>
10186       <div class="body">
10187         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
10188 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
10189 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
10190 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
10191
10192 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
10193 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
10194 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
10195 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
10196 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
10197 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
10198 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
10199 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
10200 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
10201 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
10202 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
10203 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
10204 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
10205 going to work.</p>
10206
10207 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
10208 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
10209 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
10210 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
10211 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
10212 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
10213 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
10214 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
10215 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
10216 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
10217 Edu.</p>
10218
10219 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10220 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10221 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10222 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10223 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10224 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
10225
10226 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10227 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
10228
10229       </div>
10230       <div class="tags">
10231
10232
10233         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>.
10234
10235
10236       </div>
10237     </div>
10238     <div class="padding"></div>
10239
10240     <div class="entry">
10241       <div class="title">
10242         <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>
10243       </div>
10244       <div class="date">
10245         14th May 2010
10246       </div>
10247       <div class="body">
10248         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
10249 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
10250 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
10251 expected, if I am to believe the
10252 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10253 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
10254 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
10255 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
10256 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
10257 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
10258 version.</p>
10259
10260 More information about
10261 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10262 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
10263 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
10264 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10265
10266 <blockquote><pre>
10267 CONCURRENCY=none
10268 </pre></blockquote>
10269
10270 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10271 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10272 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10273 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10274
10275       </div>
10276       <div class="tags">
10277
10278
10279         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>.
10280
10281
10282       </div>
10283     </div>
10284     <div class="padding"></div>
10285
10286     <div class="entry">
10287       <div class="title">
10288         <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>
10289       </div>
10290       <div class="date">
10291         14th May 2010
10292       </div>
10293       <div class="body">
10294         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
10295 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
10296 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
10297 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
10298 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
10299 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
10300 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
10301 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
10302
10303 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
10304 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
10305 this on the collector host:</p>
10306
10307 <blockquote><pre>
10308 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
10309 </pre></blockquote>
10310
10311 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
10312 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
10313
10314 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
10315 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
10316 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
10317 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
10318 written yet.</p>
10319
10320       </div>
10321       <div class="tags">
10322
10323
10324         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>.
10325
10326
10327       </div>
10328     </div>
10329     <div class="padding"></div>
10330
10331     <div class="entry">
10332       <div class="title">
10333         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
10334       </div>
10335       <div class="date">
10336         13th May 2010
10337       </div>
10338       <div class="body">
10339         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
10340 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
10341 has been
10342 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
10343
10344 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
10345 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
10346 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
10347 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
10348 based boot system.  Tollef is
10349 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
10350 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
10351 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
10352 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
10353 at the moment do not.</p>
10354
10355 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
10356 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
10357 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
10358 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
10359 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
10360 way forward.</p>
10361
10362 <p>In the mean time, based on the
10363 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
10364 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
10365 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
10366 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
10367 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
10368 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
10369 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
10370 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
10371
10372       </div>
10373       <div class="tags">
10374
10375
10376         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>.
10377
10378
10379       </div>
10380     </div>
10381     <div class="padding"></div>
10382
10383     <div class="entry">
10384       <div class="title">
10385         <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>
10386       </div>
10387       <div class="date">
10388          6th May 2010
10389       </div>
10390       <div class="body">
10391         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
10392 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
10393 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
10394 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
10395 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10396 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
10397 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
10398
10399 <blockquote><pre>
10400 CONCURRENCY=makefile
10401 </pre></blockquote>
10402
10403 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
10404 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
10405 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
10406 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
10407 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
10408 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
10409 make this happen.</p>
10410
10411 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
10412 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
10413 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
10414 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
10415 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
10416
10417 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
10418 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
10419 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
10420 fix the remaining issues.</p>
10421
10422 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10423 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10424 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10425 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10426
10427       </div>
10428       <div class="tags">
10429
10430
10431         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>.
10432
10433
10434       </div>
10435     </div>
10436     <div class="padding"></div>
10437
10438     <div class="entry">
10439       <div class="title">
10440         <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>
10441       </div>
10442       <div class="date">
10443         27th July 2009
10444       </div>
10445       <div class="body">
10446         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
10447 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
10448 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
10449 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
10450 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
10451 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
10452 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
10453
10454 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
10455 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
10456 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
10457
10458       </div>
10459       <div class="tags">
10460
10461
10462         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>.
10463
10464
10465       </div>
10466     </div>
10467     <div class="padding"></div>
10468
10469     <div class="entry">
10470       <div class="title">
10471         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
10472       </div>
10473       <div class="date">
10474         22nd July 2009
10475       </div>
10476       <div class="body">
10477         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
10478 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
10479 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
10480 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
10481 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
10482 the package up to date.</p>
10483
10484 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
10485 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
10486 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
10487 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
10488 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
10489 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
10490 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
10491 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
10492 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
10493 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
10494 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
10495 working on the future release.</p>
10496
10497 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
10498 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
10499
10500       </div>
10501       <div class="tags">
10502
10503
10504         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>.
10505
10506
10507       </div>
10508     </div>
10509     <div class="padding"></div>
10510
10511     <div class="entry">
10512       <div class="title">
10513         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
10514       </div>
10515       <div class="date">
10516         24th June 2009
10517       </div>
10518       <div class="body">
10519         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
10520 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
10521 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
10522 funded
10523 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
10524 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
10525 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
10526 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
10527 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
10528 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
10529
10530 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
10531 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
10532 boot:</p>
10533
10534 <ul>
10535
10536 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
10537
10538 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
10539    clock is in UTC.</li>
10540
10541 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
10542    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
10543    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
10544
10545 </ul>
10546
10547 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
10548 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
10549 Villegas</a>.
10550
10551 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
10552 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
10553 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
10554 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
10555 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
10556 using this.</p>
10557
10558 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
10559 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
10560 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
10561 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
10562 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
10563 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
10564 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
10565
10566       </div>
10567       <div class="tags">
10568
10569
10570         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>.
10571
10572
10573       </div>
10574     </div>
10575     <div class="padding"></div>
10576
10577     <div class="entry">
10578       <div class="title">
10579         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
10580       </div>
10581       <div class="date">
10582         17th May 2009
10583       </div>
10584       <div class="body">
10585         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
10586 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
10587 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
10588 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
10589 dager siden kom
10590 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
10591 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
10592 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
10593 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
10594 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
10595
10596 <blockquote>
10597 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
10598 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
10599 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
10600 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
10601 </blockquote>
10602
10603 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
10604 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
10605 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
10606 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
10607 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
10608
10609 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
10610 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
10611 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
10612
10613       </div>
10614       <div class="tags">
10615
10616
10617         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>.
10618
10619
10620       </div>
10621     </div>
10622     <div class="padding"></div>
10623
10624     <div class="entry">
10625       <div class="title">
10626         <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>
10627       </div>
10628       <div class="date">
10629          7th May 2009
10630       </div>
10631       <div class="body">
10632         <p>Kom over
10633 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
10634 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
10635 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
10636 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
10637 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
10638 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
10639 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
10640
10641       </div>
10642       <div class="tags">
10643
10644
10645         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>.
10646
10647
10648       </div>
10649     </div>
10650     <div class="padding"></div>
10651
10652     <div class="entry">
10653       <div class="title">
10654         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
10655       </div>
10656       <div class="date">
10657          2nd May 2009
10658       </div>
10659       <div class="body">
10660         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
10661 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
10662 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
10663 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
10664 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
10665 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
10666 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
10667 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
10668 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
10669 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
10670 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
10671 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
10672 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
10673 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
10674 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
10675 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
10676 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
10677 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
10678 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
10679 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
10680
10681 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
10682 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
10683 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
10684 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
10685 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
10686 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
10687 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
10688 betydelige.</p>
10689
10690       </div>
10691       <div class="tags">
10692
10693
10694         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>.
10695
10696
10697       </div>
10698     </div>
10699     <div class="padding"></div>
10700
10701     <div class="entry">
10702       <div class="title">
10703         <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>
10704       </div>
10705       <div class="date">
10706          2nd May 2009
10707       </div>
10708       <div class="body">
10709         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
10710 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
10711 do not yet know them.</p>
10712
10713 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
10714 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
10715 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
10716 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
10717 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
10718 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
10719 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
10720 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
10721 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
10722 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
10723 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
10724
10725 <p>The second one is
10726 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
10727 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
10728 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
10729 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
10730 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
10731 and the company behind it is running
10732 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
10733 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
10734 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
10735 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
10736 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
10737 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
10738 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
10739 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
10740
10741 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
10742 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
10743 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
10744 surrounded by today.</p>
10745
10746       </div>
10747       <div class="tags">
10748
10749
10750         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>.
10751
10752
10753       </div>
10754     </div>
10755     <div class="padding"></div>
10756
10757     <div class="entry">
10758       <div class="title">
10759         <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>
10760       </div>
10761       <div class="date">
10762         28th April 2009
10763       </div>
10764       <div class="body">
10765         <p>Julien Blache
10766 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
10767 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
10768 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
10769 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
10770 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
10771 properties.</p>
10772
10773       </div>
10774       <div class="tags">
10775
10776
10777         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>.
10778
10779
10780       </div>
10781     </div>
10782     <div class="padding"></div>
10783
10784     <div class="entry">
10785       <div class="title">
10786         <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>
10787       </div>
10788       <div class="date">
10789         30th March 2009
10790       </div>
10791       <div class="body">
10792         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
10793 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
10794 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
10795 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
10796 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
10797 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
10798 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
10799 application.</p>
10800
10801 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
10802 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
10803 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
10804 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
10805 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
10806 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
10807 blocked from doing so.</p>
10808
10809 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
10810 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
10811 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
10812 requirements change.</p>
10813
10814 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
10815 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
10816 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
10817
10818       </div>
10819       <div class="tags">
10820
10821
10822         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>.
10823
10824
10825       </div>
10826     </div>
10827     <div class="padding"></div>
10828
10829     <div class="entry">
10830       <div class="title">
10831         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
10832       </div>
10833       <div class="date">
10834         29th March 2009
10835       </div>
10836       <div class="body">
10837         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
10838 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
10839 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
10840 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
10841 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
10842 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
10843 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
10844 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
10845 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
10846 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
10847 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
10848 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
10849 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
10850 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
10851 now. :)</p>
10852
10853       </div>
10854       <div class="tags">
10855
10856
10857         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>.
10858
10859
10860       </div>
10861     </div>
10862     <div class="padding"></div>
10863
10864     <div class="entry">
10865       <div class="title">
10866         <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>
10867       </div>
10868       <div class="date">
10869         29th March 2009
10870       </div>
10871       <div class="body">
10872         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
10873 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
10874 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
10875 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
10876 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
10877 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
10878
10879 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
10880 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
10881 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
10882 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
10883 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
10884 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
10885 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
10886 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
10887 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
10888 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
10889 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
10890 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
10891 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
10892
10893 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
10894 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
10895 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
10896 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
10897
10898 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
10899 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
10900
10901 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
10902 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
10903 new IETF work group?</p>
10904
10905       </div>
10906       <div class="tags">
10907
10908
10909         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>.
10910
10911
10912       </div>
10913     </div>
10914     <div class="padding"></div>
10915
10916     <div class="entry">
10917       <div class="title">
10918         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
10919       </div>
10920       <div class="date">
10921         15th February 2009
10922       </div>
10923       <div class="body">
10924         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
10925 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
10926 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
10927 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
10928 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
10929 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
10930 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
10931 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
10932 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
10933 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
10934 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
10935 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
10936
10937       </div>
10938       <div class="tags">
10939
10940
10941         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>.
10942
10943
10944       </div>
10945     </div>
10946     <div class="padding"></div>
10947
10948     <div class="entry">
10949       <div class="title">
10950         <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>
10951       </div>
10952       <div class="date">
10953          7th December 2008
10954       </div>
10955       <div class="body">
10956         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
10957 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
10958 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
10959 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
10960 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
10961 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
10962 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
10963 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
10964
10965 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
10966 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
10967 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
10968 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
10969 of these cards.</p>
10970
10971       </div>
10972       <div class="tags">
10973
10974
10975         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>.
10976
10977
10978       </div>
10979     </div>
10980     <div class="padding"></div>
10981
10982     <div class="entry">
10983       <div class="title">
10984         <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>
10985       </div>
10986       <div class="date">
10987         25th November 2008
10988       </div>
10989       <div class="body">
10990         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
10991 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
10992 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
10993 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
10994 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
10995 notes are available on
10996 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
10997 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
10998 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
10999 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
11000 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
11001 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
11002 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
11003 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
11004 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
11005
11006 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
11007 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
11008
11009       </div>
11010       <div class="tags">
11011
11012
11013         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>.
11014
11015
11016       </div>
11017     </div>
11018     <div class="padding"></div>
11019
11020     <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>
11021     <div id="sidebar">
11022
11023
11024
11025 <h2>Archive</h2>
11026 <ul>
11027
11028 <li>2016
11029 <ul>
11030
11031 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
11032
11033 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
11034
11035 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
11036
11037 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
11038
11039 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
11040
11041 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11042
11043 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
11044
11045 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
11046
11047 </ul></li>
11048
11049 <li>2015
11050 <ul>
11051
11052 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
11053
11054 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
11055
11056 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
11057
11058 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
11059
11060 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
11061
11062 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
11063
11064 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
11065
11066 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
11067
11068 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
11069
11070 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
11071
11072 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
11073
11074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11075
11076 </ul></li>
11077
11078 <li>2014
11079 <ul>
11080
11081 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
11082
11083 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
11084
11085 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
11086
11087 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
11088
11089 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
11090
11091 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11092
11093 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
11094
11095 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
11096
11097 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
11098
11099 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
11100
11101 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11102
11103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
11104
11105 </ul></li>
11106
11107 <li>2013
11108 <ul>
11109
11110 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
11111
11112 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
11113
11114 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
11115
11116 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
11117
11118 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11119
11120 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
11121
11122 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
11123
11124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
11125
11126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
11127
11128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
11129
11130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
11131
11132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11133
11134 </ul></li>
11135
11136 <li>2012
11137 <ul>
11138
11139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
11140
11141 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
11142
11143 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
11144
11145 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
11146
11147 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
11148
11149 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
11150
11151 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
11152
11153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11154
11155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
11156
11157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
11158
11159 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
11160
11161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
11162
11163 </ul></li>
11164
11165 <li>2011
11166 <ul>
11167
11168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
11169
11170 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
11171
11172 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
11173
11174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
11175
11176 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
11177
11178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11179
11180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
11181
11182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11183
11184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
11185
11186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11187
11188 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11189
11190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
11191
11192 </ul></li>
11193
11194 <li>2010
11195 <ul>
11196
11197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
11198
11199 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
11200
11201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
11202
11203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
11204
11205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11206
11207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
11208
11209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
11210
11211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
11212
11213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
11214
11215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
11216
11217 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
11218
11219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
11220
11221 </ul></li>
11222
11223 <li>2009
11224 <ul>
11225
11226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
11227
11228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
11229
11230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
11231
11232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
11233
11234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11235
11236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
11237
11238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
11239
11240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
11241
11242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
11243
11244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11245
11246 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11247
11248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11249
11250 </ul></li>
11251
11252 <li>2008
11253 <ul>
11254
11255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
11256
11257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
11258
11259 </ul></li>
11260
11261 </ul>
11262
11263
11264
11265 <h2>Tags</h2>
11266 <ul>
11267
11268  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
11269
11270  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
11271
11272  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
11273
11274  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
11275
11276  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
11277
11278  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
11279
11280  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
11281
11282  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
11283
11284  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (135)</a></li>
11285
11286  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (157)</a></li>
11287
11288  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
11289
11290  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
11291
11292  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
11293
11294  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
11295
11296  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (327)</a></li>
11297
11298  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
11299
11300  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
11301
11302  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (28)</a></li>
11303
11304  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
11305
11306  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
11307
11308  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
11309
11310  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
11311
11312  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (12)</a></li>
11313
11314  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
11315
11316  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
11317
11318  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
11319
11320  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
11321
11322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
11323
11324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
11325
11326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
11327
11328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (8)</a></li>
11329
11330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (276)</a></li>
11331
11332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (182)</a></li>
11333
11334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
11335
11336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
11337
11338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (61)</a></li>
11339
11340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
11341
11342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
11343
11344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
11345
11346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
11347
11348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
11349
11350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
11351
11352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
11353
11354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
11355
11356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
11357
11358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (48)</a></li>
11359
11360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
11361
11362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
11363
11364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
11365
11366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (4)</a></li>
11367
11368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
11369
11370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (37)</a></li>
11371
11372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
11373
11374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
11375
11376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
11377
11378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
11379
11380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
11381
11382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
11383
11384 </ul>
11385
11386
11387     </div>
11388     <p style="text-align: right">
11389  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
11390 </p>
11391
11392   </body>
11393 </html>