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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         17th October 2014
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
  32 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
  33 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
  34 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
  35 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
  36 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
  37 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
  38
  39 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
  40 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
  41 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
  42 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
  43 of this story.)</p>
  44
  45 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
  46 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
  47 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
  48 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
  49 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
  50 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
  51 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
  52 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
  53 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
  54 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
  55
  56 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
  57 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
  58 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
  59 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
  60
  61 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
  62 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
  63
  64 <p><blockquote><pre>
  65 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
  66 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
  67 </pre></blockquote></p>
  68
  69 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
  70 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
  71 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
  72 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
  73 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
  74 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
  75 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
  76 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
  77
  78 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
  79 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
  80
  81 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
  82 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
  83 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
  84 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
  85 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
  86
  87 <p><blockquote><pre>
  88 Task: isenkram-packages
  89 Section: hardware
  90 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
  91  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
  92  proposed.
  93 Test-new-install: show show
  94 Relevance: 8
  95 Packages: for-current-hardware
  96
  97 Task: isenkram-firmware
  98 Section: hardware
  99 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 100  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
 101  packages are proposed.
 102 Test-new-install: mark show
 103 Relevance: 8
 104 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
 105 </pre></blockquote></p>
 106
 107 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
 108 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
 109 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
 110 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
 111 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
 112
 113 <p><blockquote><pre>
 114 #!/bin/sh
 115 #
 116 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
 117 export PATH
 118 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 119 </pre></blockquote></p>
 120
 121 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
 122 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
 123
 124 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
 125 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
 126 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
 127 install.</p>
 128
 129 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
 130 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
 131 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
 132
 133       </div>
 134       <div class="tags">
 135
 136
 137         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>.
 138
 139
 140       </div>
 141     </div>
 142     <div class="padding"></div>
 143
 144     <div class="entry">
 145       <div class="title">
 146         <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>
 147       </div>
 148       <div class="date">
 149          4th October 2014
 150       </div>
 151       <div class="body">
 152         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
 153 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
 154 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
 155 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
 156
 157 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
 158
 159 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
 160 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
 161 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
 162
 163       </div>
 164       <div class="tags">
 165
 166
 167         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>.
 168
 169
 170       </div>
 171     </div>
 172     <div class="padding"></div>
 173
 174     <div class="entry">
 175       <div class="title">
 176         <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>
 177       </div>
 178       <div class="date">
 179          4th October 2014
 180       </div>
 181       <div class="body">
 182         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
 183 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
 184 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
 185 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
 186 Dibb.</p>
 187
 188 <p>I just wrapped up
 189 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
 190 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
 191 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
 192 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
 193 0.17.</p>
 194
 195 <ul>
 196
 197  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
 198  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
 199    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
 200  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
 201  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
 202  <li>Fix include orders</li>
 203  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
 204  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
 205  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
 206    the palette size is the same.</li>
 207  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
 208  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
 209  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
 210  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
 211    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
 212
 213 </ul>
 214
 215 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
 216 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
 217 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
 218
 219       </div>
 220       <div class="tags">
 221
 222
 223         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>.
 224
 225
 226       </div>
 227     </div>
 228     <div class="padding"></div>
 229
 230     <div class="entry">
 231       <div class="title">
 232         <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>
 233       </div>
 234       <div class="date">
 235         26th September 2014
 236       </div>
 237       <div class="body">
 238         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 239 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
 240 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
 241 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
 242 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
 243 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
 244 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
 245 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
 246 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
 247 future.  The
 248 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
 249 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
 250 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
 251 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
 252 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
 253
 254 <p>First, download the test ISO via
 255 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
 256 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
 257 or rsync (use
 258 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
 259 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
 260 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
 261 install with some tweaking.</p>
 262
 263 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
 264 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
 265
 266 <p><blockquote><pre>
 267 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
 268 </pre></blockquote></p>
 269
 270 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
 271 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
 272 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
 273 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
 274
 275 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
 276 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
 277 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
 278 your need.</p>
 279
 280 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
 281 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
 282 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
 283 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
 284 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
 285 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
 286 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
 287 days.</p>
 288
 289 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
 290 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
 291 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
 292 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
 293 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
 294 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
 295 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
 296 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
 297 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
 298
 299 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
 300 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
 301 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
 302
 303       </div>
 304       <div class="tags">
 305
 306
 307         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>.
 308
 309
 310       </div>
 311     </div>
 312     <div class="padding"></div>
 313
 314     <div class="entry">
 315       <div class="title">
 316         <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>
 317       </div>
 318       <div class="date">
 319         25th September 2014
 320       </div>
 321       <div class="body">
 322         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
 323 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
 324 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
 325 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
 326 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
 327 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
 328 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
 329 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
 330 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
 331 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
 332 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
 333 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
 334 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
 335
 336 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
 337 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
 338 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
 339 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
 340 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
 341 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
 342 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
 343 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
 344 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
 345 list</a>. :)</p>
 346
 347       </div>
 348       <div class="tags">
 349
 350
 351         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>.
 352
 353
 354       </div>
 355     </div>
 356     <div class="padding"></div>
 357
 358     <div class="entry">
 359       <div class="title">
 360         <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>
 361       </div>
 362       <div class="date">
 363         16th September 2014
 364       </div>
 365       <div class="body">
 366         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
 367 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
 368 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
 369 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
 370 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
 371 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
 372 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
 373 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
 374 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
 375 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
 376 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
 377 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
 378 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
 379 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
 380
 381 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
 382 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
 383 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
 384 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
 385 depend on the small and clever package
 386 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
 387 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
 388 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
 389 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
 390 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
 391 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
 392 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
 393 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
 394 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
 395 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
 396 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
 397
 398 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
 399 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
 400 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
 401 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
 402 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
 403 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
 404 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
 405 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
 406 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
 407 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
 408 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
 409 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
 410 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
 411 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
 412 dialog.</p>
 413
 414 <p><table>
 415
 416 <tr>
 417 <th>Machine/setup</th>
 418 <th>Original tasksel</th>
 419 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
 420 <th>Reduction</th>
 421 </tr>
 422
 423 <tr>
 424 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
 425 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
 426 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
 427 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
 428 </tr>
 429
 430 <tr>
 431 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
 432 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
 433 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
 434 <td>23 min 40%</td>
 435 </tr>
 436
 437 <tr>
 438 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
 439 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
 440 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
 441 <td>11 min 50%</td>
 442 </tr>
 443
 444 <tr>
 445 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
 446 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
 447 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
 448 <td>2 min 33%</td>
 449 </tr>
 450
 451 <tr>
 452 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
 453 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
 454 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
 455 <td>4 min 21%</td>
 456 </tr>
 457
 458 </table></p>
 459
 460 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
 461 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
 462 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
 463 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
 464 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
 465 installed.</p>
 466
 467 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
 468 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
 469 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
 470 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
 471 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
 472 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
 473 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
 474 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
 475 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
 476 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
 477 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
 478 for the entire installation.</p>
 479
 480 <p>I've implemented this in the
 481 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
 482 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
 483 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
 484 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
 485 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
 486
 487 <p><blockquote><pre>
 488 #!/bin/sh
 489 set -e
 490 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 491 info() {
 492     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
 493 }
 494 error() {
 495     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
 496 }
 497 override_install() {
 498     apt-install eatmydata || true
 499     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
 500         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 501             file=/usr/bin/$bin
 502             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
 503             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
 504                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
 505                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
 506                     > /target$file.edu
 507                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
 508                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 509                     --rename --quiet --add $file
 510                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
 511             else
 512                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
 513             fi
 514         done
 515     else
 516         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
 517     fi
 518 }
 519
 520 override_install
 521 </pre></blockquote></p>
 522
 523 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
 524 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
 525
 526 <p><blockquote><pre>
 527 #! /bin/sh -e
 528 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 529 error() {
 530     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
 531 }
 532 remove_install_override() {
 533     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 534         file=/usr/bin/$bin
 535         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
 536             rm /target$file
 537             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 538                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
 539             rm /target$file.edu
 540         else
 541             error "Missing divert for $file."
 542         fi
 543     done
 544     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
 545 }
 546
 547 remove_install_override
 548 </pre></blockquote></p>
 549
 550 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
 551 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
 552 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
 553
 554 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
 555 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
 556 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
 557 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
 558 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
 559 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
 560 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
 561 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
 562 everyone.</p>
 563
 564 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
 565 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
 566 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711.  An updated
 567 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
 568
 569       </div>
 570       <div class="tags">
 571
 572
 573         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>.
 574
 575
 576       </div>
 577     </div>
 578     <div class="padding"></div>
 579
 580     <div class="entry">
 581       <div class="title">
 582         <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>
 583       </div>
 584       <div class="date">
 585         10th September 2014
 586       </div>
 587       <div class="body">
 588         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
 589 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
 590 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
 591 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
 592 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
 593 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
 594 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
 595 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
 596 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
 597 those problems are gone now.</p>
 598
 599 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
 600 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
 601 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
 602 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
 603 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
 604
 605 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
 606 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
 607 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
 608
 609 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
 610 line:</p>
 611
 612 <p><blockquote><pre>
 613 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
 614 </pre></blockquote></p>
 615
 616 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
 617 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
 618 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
 619 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
 620
 621 <p><blockquote><pre>
 622 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
 623 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
 624 %
 625 </pre></blockquote></p>
 626
 627 <p>Now if only
 628 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
 629 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
 630 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
 631 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
 632 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
 633 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
 634 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
 635 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
 636 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
 637
 638       </div>
 639       <div class="tags">
 640
 641
 642         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>.
 643
 644
 645       </div>
 646     </div>
 647     <div class="padding"></div>
 648
 649     <div class="entry">
 650       <div class="title">
 651         <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>
 652       </div>
 653       <div class="date">
 654         17th June 2014
 655       </div>
 656       <div class="body">
 657         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 658 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
 659 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
 660 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
 661 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
 662
 663 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
 664 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
 665 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
 666 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
 667 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
 668 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
 669 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
 670 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
 671 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
 672 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
 673 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
 674 goals.</p>
 675
 676 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
 677 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
 678 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
 679 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
 680 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
 681 chapters together into one large web page (aka
 682 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
 683 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
 684 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
 685 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
 686 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
 687 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
 688 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
 689 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
 690 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
 691 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
 692 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
 693 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
 694 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
 695 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
 696 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
 697 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
 698 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
 699 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
 700
 701 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
 702 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
 703 track the English original.  For this we use the
 704 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
 705 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
 706 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
 707 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
 708 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
 709 files), which the translations update with the native language
 710 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
 711 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
 712 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
 713 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
 714 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
 715 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
 716 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
 717 of the documentation.</p>
 718
 719 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
 720 recommend using
 721 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
 722 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
 723 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
 724 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
 725 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
 726 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
 727 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
 728 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
 729
 730 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
 731 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
 732 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
 733 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
 734 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
 735 translated images by storing translated versions in
 736 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
 737 package maintainers know more.</p>
 738
 739 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
 740 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
 741 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
 742 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
 743 PDF version</a> or the
 744 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
 745 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
 746 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
 747
 748 <p>To learn more, check out
 749 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
 750 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
 751 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
 752 manual on the wiki</a> and
 753 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
 754 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
 755
 756       </div>
 757       <div class="tags">
 758
 759
 760         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>.
 761
 762
 763       </div>
 764     </div>
 765     <div class="padding"></div>
 766
 767     <div class="entry">
 768       <div class="title">
 769         <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>
 770       </div>
 771       <div class="date">
 772         23rd April 2014
 773       </div>
 774       <div class="body">
 775         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
 776 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
 777 So I implemented one, using
 778 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
 779 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
 780 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
 781 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
 782 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
 783 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
 784
 785 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
 786 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
 787 packages to install.  The first part is in
 788 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
 789 this:</p>
 790
 791 <p><blockquote><pre>
 792 Task: isenkram
 793 Section: hardware
 794 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 795  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 796  proposed.
 797 Test-new-install: mark show
 798 Relevance: 8
 799 Packages: for-current-hardware
 800 </pre></blockquote></p>
 801
 802 <p>The second part is in
 803 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
 804 this:</p>
 805
 806 <p><blockquote><pre>
 807 #!/bin/sh
 808 #
 809 (
 810     isenkram-lookup
 811     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 812 ) | sort -u
 813 </pre></blockquote></p>
 814
 815 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
 816 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
 817 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
 818 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
 819 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
 820 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
 821
 822 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
 823 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
 824 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
 825 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
 826 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
 827 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
 828 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
 829 the python-apt code (bug
 830 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
 831 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
 832 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
 833 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
 834 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
 835 unstable today.</p>
 836
 837 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
 838 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
 839 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
 840 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
 841 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
 842 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
 843 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
 844 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
 845 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
 846
 847 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
 848 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
 849 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
 850 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
 851 package.  See also
 852 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
 853 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
 854 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
 855 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
 856
 857       </div>
 858       <div class="tags">
 859
 860
 861         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>.
 862
 863
 864       </div>
 865     </div>
 866     <div class="padding"></div>
 867
 868     <div class="entry">
 869       <div class="title">
 870         <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>
 871       </div>
 872       <div class="date">
 873         15th April 2014
 874       </div>
 875       <div class="body">
 876         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 877 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
 878 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
 879 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
 880 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
 881 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
 882
 883 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
 884 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
 885 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
 886 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
 887 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
 888 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
 889 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
 890
 891 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
 892 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
 893 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
 894 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
 895 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
 896 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
 897 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
 898 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
 899 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
 900 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
 901 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
 902 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
 903
 904 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
 905 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
 906 become root:</p>
 907
 908 <p><pre>
 909 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 910   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 911   u-boot-tools
 912 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 913   freedom-maker
 914 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 915 </pre></p>
 916
 917 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 918 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
 919 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
 920 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
 921 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
 922 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
 923 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
 924 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
 925
 926 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 927 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 928 the preseed values:</p>
 929
 930 <p><pre>
 931 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 932 </pre></p>
 933
 934 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
 935 it still work.</p>
 936
 937 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
 938 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
 939 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
 940 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
 941 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
 942 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
 943 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
 944
 945 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 946 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 947 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 948 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 949 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 950 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 951
 952       </div>
 953       <div class="tags">
 954
 955
 956         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>.
 957
 958
 959       </div>
 960     </div>
 961     <div class="padding"></div>
 962
 963     <div class="entry">
 964       <div class="title">
 965         <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>
 966       </div>
 967       <div class="date">
 968          9th April 2014
 969       </div>
 970       <div class="body">
 971         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
 972 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
 973 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
 974 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
 975 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
 976 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
 977 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
 978 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
 979 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
 980 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
 981 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
 982 have looked at a system called
 983 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
 984 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
 985
 986 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
 987 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
 988 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
 989 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
 990 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
 991 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
 992 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
 993 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
 994 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
 995 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
 996 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
 997 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
 998 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
 999
1000 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
1001 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
1002 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
1003 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
1004 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
1005 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
1006 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
1007 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
1008 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
1009 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
1010 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
1011 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
1012 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
1013 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
1014 account.</p>
1015
1016 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
1017 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
1018 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
1019 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
1020 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
1021 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
1022 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
1023
1024 <p><blockquote><pre>
1025 [s3c]
1026 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1027 backend-login: API-login
1028 backend-password: API-password
1029 fs-passphrase: local-password
1030 </pre></blockquote></p>
1031
1032 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
1033 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
1034 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
1035 details and password to create it:</p>
1036
1037 <p><blockquote><pre>
1038 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
1039 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1040   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1041 Enter backend login:
1042 Enter backend password:
1043 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
1044 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
1045 Enter encryption password:
1046 Confirm encryption password:
1047 Generating random encryption key...
1048 Creating metadata tables...
1049 Dumping metadata...
1050 ..objects..
1051 ..blocks..
1052 ..inodes..
1053 ..inode_blocks..
1054 ..symlink_targets..
1055 ..names..
1056 ..contents..
1057 ..ext_attributes..
1058 Compressing and uploading metadata...
1059 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
1060 # </pre></blockquote></p>
1061
1062 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
1063
1064 <p><blockquote><pre>
1065 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1066   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
1067 Using 4 upload threads.
1068 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
1069 Reading metadata...
1070 ..objects..
1071 ..blocks..
1072 ..inodes..
1073 ..inode_blocks..
1074 ..symlink_targets..
1075 ..names..
1076 ..contents..
1077 ..ext_attributes..
1078 Mounting filesystem...
1079 # df -h /s3ql
1080 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
1081 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
1082 #
1083 </pre></blockquote></p>
1084
1085 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
1086 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
1087 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
1088 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
1089 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
1090 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
1091
1092 <p><blockquote><pre>
1093 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
1094 #
1095 </pre></blockquote></p>
1096
1097 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
1098 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
1099 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
1100 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
1101 file system:</p>
1102
1103 <p><blockquote><pre>
1104 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
1105 Using cached metadata.
1106 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
1107 Checking DB integrity...
1108 Creating temporary extra indices...
1109 Checking lost+found...
1110 Checking cached objects...
1111 Checking names (refcounts)...
1112 Checking contents (names)...
1113 Checking contents (inodes)...
1114 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
1115 Checking objects (reference counts)...
1116 Checking objects (backend)...
1117 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
1118 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
1119 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
1120 Checking objects (sizes)...
1121 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
1122 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
1123 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
1124 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
1125 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
1126 Checking inodes (sizes)...
1127 Checking extended attributes (names)...
1128 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
1129 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
1130 Checking directory reachability...
1131 Checking unix conventions...
1132 Checking referential integrity...
1133 Dropping temporary indices...
1134 Backing up old metadata...
1135 Dumping metadata...
1136 ..objects..
1137 ..blocks..
1138 ..inodes..
1139 ..inode_blocks..
1140 ..symlink_targets..
1141 ..names..
1142 ..contents..
1143 ..ext_attributes..
1144 Compressing and uploading metadata...
1145 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
1146 #
1147 </pre></blockquote></p>
1148
1149 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
1150 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
1151 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
1152 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
1153 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
1154 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
1155 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
1156 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
1157 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
1158 working set.</p>
1159
1160 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
1161 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
1162 busy:</p>
1163
1164 <p><blockquote><pre>
1165 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
1166   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
1167 Using 8 upload threads.
1168 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
1169 #
1170 </pre></blockquote></p>
1171
1172 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
1173 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
1174 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
1175 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
1176 s3qlctrl:
1177
1178 <p><blockquote><pre>
1179 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
1180 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
1181 #
1182 </pre></blockquote></p>
1183
1184 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
1185 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
1186 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
1187 a report:</p>
1188
1189 <p><blockquote><pre>
1190 # s3qlstat /s3ql
1191 Directory entries:    9141
1192 Inodes:               9143
1193 Data blocks:          8851
1194 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
1195 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
1196 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
1197 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
1198 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
1199 #
1200 </pre></blockquote></p>
1201
1202 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
1203 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
1204 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
1205 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
1206 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
1207 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
1208 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
1209 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
1210 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
1211 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
1212 best.</p>
1213
1214 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
1215 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
1216 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
1217 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
1218 poster is titled
1219 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
1220 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
1221 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
1222 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
1223 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
1224
1225 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
1226 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
1227 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
1228 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
1229 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
1230 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
1231 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
1232 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
1233
1234 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
1235 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
1236 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
1237 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
1238 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
1239 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
1240 only read from it.</p>
1241
1242 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1243 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1244 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1245
1246       </div>
1247       <div class="tags">
1248
1249
1250         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>.
1251
1252
1253       </div>
1254     </div>
1255     <div class="padding"></div>
1256
1257     <div class="entry">
1258       <div class="title">
1259         <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>
1260       </div>
1261       <div class="date">
1262         14th March 2014
1263       </div>
1264       <div class="body">
1265         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1266 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
1267 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
1268 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
1269 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
1270 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
1271 release (0.2).</p>
1272
1273 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
1274 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
1275 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
1276 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
1277 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
1278 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
1279 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
1280 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
1281 and build using
1282 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
1283 with a user with sudo access to become root:
1284
1285 <pre>
1286 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1287   freedom-maker
1288 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1289   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1290   u-boot-tools
1291 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1292 </pre>
1293
1294 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
1295 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
1296 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
1297 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
1298 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
1299 kpartx call.</p>
1300
1301 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
1302 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
1303 the preseed values:</p>
1304
1305 <pre>
1306 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
1307 </pre>
1308
1309 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
1310 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
1311 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
1312 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
1313 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
1314 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
1315
1316 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
1317 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
1318 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
1319 irc.debian.org)</a> and
1320 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1321 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1322
1323       </div>
1324       <div class="tags">
1325
1326
1327         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>.
1328
1329
1330       </div>
1331     </div>
1332     <div class="padding"></div>
1333
1334     <div class="entry">
1335       <div class="title">
1336         <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>
1337       </div>
1338       <div class="date">
1339         22nd February 2014
1340       </div>
1341       <div class="body">
1342         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
1343 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
1344 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
1345 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
1346 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
1347 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
1348 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
1349 proper home since then.</p>
1350
1351 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
1352 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
1353 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
1354 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
1355 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
1356
1357 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
1358 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
1359 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
1360 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
1361 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
1362 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
1363 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
1364 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
1365 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
1366
1367       </div>
1368       <div class="tags">
1369
1370
1371         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>.
1372
1373
1374       </div>
1375     </div>
1376     <div class="padding"></div>
1377
1378     <div class="entry">
1379       <div class="title">
1380         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
1381       </div>
1382       <div class="date">
1383          3rd February 2014
1384       </div>
1385       <div class="body">
1386         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
1387 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
1388 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
1389 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
1390 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
1391 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
1392 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
1393 <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>,
1394 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
1395
1396 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
1397 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
1398 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
1399 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
1400 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
1401 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
1402
1403 <p><blockquote><pre>
1404 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
1405 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
1406 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
1407 dhclient /dev/eth0
1408 </pre></blockquote></p>
1409
1410 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
1411 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
1412 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
1413
1414 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
1415 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
1416 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
1417 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
1418 side.</p>
1419
1420 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
1421 stuff:</p>
1422
1423 <p><blockquote><pre>
1424 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1425 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
1426 EOF
1427 apt-get update
1428 apt-get dist-upgrade
1429 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
1430     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
1431 update-alternatives --config runsystem
1432 </pre></blockquote></p>
1433
1434 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
1435 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
1436 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
1437 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
1438 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
1439 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
1440 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
1441 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
1442 ssh instead.
1443
1444 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
1445 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
1446 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
1447 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
1448 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
1449 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
1450
1451 <p><blockquote><pre>
1452 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1453 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
1454 EOF
1455 </pre></blockquote></p>
1456
1457 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
1458 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
1459 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
1460 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
1461
1462 <p><blockquote><pre>
1463 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
1464 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
1465 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
1466 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
1467 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
1468 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
1469 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
1470 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
1471 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
1472 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
1473 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
1474 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
1475 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
1476 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
1477 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
1478 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
1479 #
1480 </pre></blockquote></p>
1481
1482 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
1483 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
1484 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
1485 command line stuff.<p>
1486
1487       </div>
1488       <div class="tags">
1489
1490
1491         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>.
1492
1493
1494       </div>
1495     </div>
1496     <div class="padding"></div>
1497
1498     <div class="entry">
1499       <div class="title">
1500         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
1501       </div>
1502       <div class="date">
1503         14th January 2014
1504       </div>
1505       <div class="body">
1506         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
1507 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
1508 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
1509 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
1510 the source.  The company behind it provide
1511 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
1512 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
1513 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
1514 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
1515 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
1516 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
1517 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
1518 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
1519 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
1520 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
1521 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
1522 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
1523 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
1524 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
1525 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
1526 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
1527 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
1528 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
1529 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
1530
1531 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
1532
1533 <ul>
1534
1535   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
1536   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
1537   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
1538
1539 </ul>
1540
1541 <p>You can
1542 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
1543 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
1544 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
1545 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
1546 include a test suite check.</p>
1547
1548       </div>
1549       <div class="tags">
1550
1551
1552         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>.
1553
1554
1555       </div>
1556     </div>
1557     <div class="padding"></div>
1558
1559     <div class="entry">
1560       <div class="title">
1561         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
1562       </div>
1563       <div class="date">
1564         24th November 2013
1565       </div>
1566       <div class="body">
1567         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
1568 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
1569 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
1570 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
1571 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
1572 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
1573 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
1574 is working on.  I checked the
1575 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
1576 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
1577 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
1578 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
1579 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
1580 These are the release notes:</p>
1581
1582 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
1583
1584 <ul>
1585
1586   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
1587    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
1588    up.</li>
1589
1590   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
1591
1592   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
1593    Matthias Klose.</li>
1594
1595   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
1596    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
1597
1598   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
1599    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
1600    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
1601
1602 </ul>
1603
1604 <p>You can
1605 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
1606 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
1607 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
1608 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
1609 include a testsuite check.</p>
1610
1611       </div>
1612       <div class="tags">
1613
1614
1615         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>.
1616
1617
1618       </div>
1619     </div>
1620     <div class="padding"></div>
1621
1622     <div class="entry">
1623       <div class="title">
1624         <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>
1625       </div>
1626       <div class="date">
1627          2nd November 2013
1628       </div>
1629       <div class="body">
1630         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
1631 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
1632 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
1633 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
1634 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
1635
1636 <p><pre>
1637 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
1638 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
1639 # Provides:          rsyslog
1640 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
1641 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
1642 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
1643 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
1644 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
1645 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
1646 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
1647 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
1648 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
1649 ### END INIT INFO
1650 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
1651 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
1652 </pre></p>
1653
1654 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
1655 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
1656 info/comments.</p>
1657
1658 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
1659 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
1660
1661 <p><pre>
1662 #!/bin/sh
1663
1664 # Define LSB log_* functions.
1665 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
1666 # and status_of_proc is working.
1667 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
1668
1669 #
1670 # Function that starts the daemon/service
1671
1672 #
1673 do_start()
1674 {
1675         # Return
1676         #   0 if daemon has been started
1677         #   1 if daemon was already running
1678         #   2 if daemon could not be started
1679         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
1680                 || return 1
1681         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
1682                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
1683                 || return 2
1684         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
1685         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
1686         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
1687 }
1688
1689 #
1690 # Function that stops the daemon/service
1691 #
1692 do_stop()
1693 {
1694         # Return
1695         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
1696         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
1697         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
1698         #   other if a failure occurred
1699         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1700         RETVAL="$?"
1701         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
1702         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
1703         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
1704         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
1705         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
1706         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
1707         # sleep for some time.
1708         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
1709         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
1710         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
1711         rm -f $PIDFILE
1712         return "$RETVAL"
1713 }
1714
1715 #
1716 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
1717 #
1718 do_reload() {
1719         #
1720         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
1721         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
1722         # then implement that here.
1723         #
1724         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1725         return 0
1726 }
1727
1728 SCRIPTNAME=$1
1729 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
1730 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
1731 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
1732     script="$1"
1733     shift
1734     . $script
1735 else
1736     exit 0
1737 fi
1738
1739 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
1740 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
1741
1742 # Exit if the package is not installed
1743 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
1744
1745 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
1746 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
1747
1748 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
1749 . /lib/init/vars.sh
1750
1751 case "$1" in
1752   start)
1753         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
1754         do_start
1755         case "$?" in
1756                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1757                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1758         esac
1759         ;;
1760   stop)
1761         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
1762         do_stop
1763         case "$?" in
1764                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1765                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1766         esac
1767         ;;
1768   status)
1769         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
1770         ;;
1771   #reload|force-reload)
1772         #
1773         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
1774         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
1775         #
1776         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
1777         #do_reload
1778         #log_end_msg $?
1779         #;;
1780   restart|force-reload)
1781         #
1782         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
1783         # 'force-reload' alias
1784         #
1785         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
1786         do_stop
1787         case "$?" in
1788           0|1)
1789                 do_start
1790                 case "$?" in
1791                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1792                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
1793                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
1794                 esac
1795                 ;;
1796           *)
1797                 # Failed to stop
1798                 log_end_msg 1
1799                 ;;
1800         esac
1801         ;;
1802   *)
1803         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
1804         exit 3
1805         ;;
1806 esac
1807
1808 :
1809 </pre></p>
1810
1811 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
1812 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
1813 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
1814 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
1815
1816 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
1817 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
1818 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
1819 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
1820 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
1821
1822       </div>
1823       <div class="tags">
1824
1825
1826         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>.
1827
1828
1829       </div>
1830     </div>
1831     <div class="padding"></div>
1832
1833     <div class="entry">
1834       <div class="title">
1835         <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>
1836       </div>
1837       <div class="date">
1838          1st November 2013
1839       </div>
1840       <div class="body">
1841         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
1842 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
1843 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
1844 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
1845 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
1846 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
1847 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
1848 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
1849 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
1850 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
1851 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
1852 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
1853
1854 <p>The source is now available from
1855 <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>
1856
1857       </div>
1858       <div class="tags">
1859
1860
1861         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>.
1862
1863
1864       </div>
1865     </div>
1866     <div class="padding"></div>
1867
1868     <div class="entry">
1869       <div class="title">
1870         <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>
1871       </div>
1872       <div class="date">
1873         27th October 2013
1874       </div>
1875       <div class="body">
1876         <p>The
1877 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
1878 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
1879 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
1880 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
1881 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
1882 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
1883 of a plan to simplify the build system for
1884 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
1885 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
1886 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
1887 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
1888 Raspberry Pi.</p>
1889
1890 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
1891 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
1892 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
1893 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
1894 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
1895 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
1896 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
1897 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
1898 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
1899 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
1900 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
1901 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
1902 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
1903 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
1904 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
1905 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
1906 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
1907 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
1908 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
1909 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
1910 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
1911 available from
1912 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
1913 upstream project page</a>.</p>
1914
1915 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
1916 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
1917 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
1918 list:</p>
1919
1920 <p><pre>
1921 #!/bin/sh
1922 set -e # Exit on first error
1923 rootdir="$1"
1924 cd "$rootdir"
1925 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
1926 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
1927 EOF
1928 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
1929 # install a kernel somewhere too.
1930 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
1931     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1932 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1933 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
1934 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
1935 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
1936 </pre></p>
1937
1938 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
1939 to build the image:</p>
1940
1941 <pre>
1942 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
1943     --variant minbase \
1944     --arch armel \
1945     --distribution jessie \
1946     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
1947     --image test.img \
1948     --size 600M \
1949     --bootsize 64M \
1950     --boottype vfat \
1951     --log-level debug \
1952     --verbose \
1953     --no-kernel \
1954     --no-extlinux \
1955     --root-password raspberry \
1956     --hostname raspberrypi \
1957     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
1958     --customize `pwd`/customize \
1959     --package netbase \
1960     --package git-core \
1961     --package binutils \
1962     --package ca-certificates \
1963     --package wget \
1964     --package kmod
1965 </pre></p>
1966
1967 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
1968 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
1969 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
1970 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
1971 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
1972 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
1973 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
1974
1975 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
1976 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
1977 build dependency list.</p>
1978
1979 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
1980 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
1981 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
1982 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
1983
1984       </div>
1985       <div class="tags">
1986
1987
1988         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>.
1989
1990
1991       </div>
1992     </div>
1993     <div class="padding"></div>
1994
1995     <div class="entry">
1996       <div class="title">
1997         <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>
1998       </div>
1999       <div class="date">
2000         15th October 2013
2001       </div>
2002       <div class="body">
2003         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
2004 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
2005 these. :)</p>
2006
2007 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
2008 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
2009 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
2010 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
2011 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
2012 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
2013 hope you will to. :)</p>
2014
2015 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
2016 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
2017 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
2018 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
2019 donated.  Are you next?</p>
2020
2021 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
2022 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
2023 statement under the heading
2024 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
2025 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
2026 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
2027 too.</p>
2028
2029       </div>
2030       <div class="tags">
2031
2032
2033         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>.
2034
2035
2036       </div>
2037     </div>
2038     <div class="padding"></div>
2039
2040     <div class="entry">
2041       <div class="title">
2042         <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>
2043       </div>
2044       <div class="date">
2045         27th September 2013
2046       </div>
2047       <div class="body">
2048         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
2049 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
2050 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
2051 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
2052
2053 <ul>
2054
2055 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
2056 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
2057
2058 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
2059 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2060
2061 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
2062 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
2063 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
2064 (Youtube)</li>
2065
2066 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
2067 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
2068
2069 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
2070 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
2071
2072 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
2073 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
2074 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
2075
2076 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
2077 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
2078 (Youtube)</li>
2079
2080 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
2081 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
2082
2083 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
2084 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
2085
2086 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
2087 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
2088 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
2089
2090 </ul>
2091
2092 <p>A larger list is available from
2093 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
2094 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
2095
2096 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
2097 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
2098 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
2099 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
2100 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
2101 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
2102 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
2103 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
2104 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
2105 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2106 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2107
2108       </div>
2109       <div class="tags">
2110
2111
2112         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>.
2113
2114
2115       </div>
2116     </div>
2117     <div class="padding"></div>
2118
2119     <div class="entry">
2120       <div class="title">
2121         <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>
2122       </div>
2123       <div class="date">
2124         10th September 2013
2125       </div>
2126       <div class="body">
2127         <p>I was introduced to the
2128 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
2129 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
2130 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
2131 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
2132 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
2133 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
2134 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
2135 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
2136
2137 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
2138 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
2139 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
2140 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
2141 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
2142
2143 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
2144 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
2145 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
2146 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
2147 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
2148 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
2149 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
2150 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
2151 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
2152 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
2153 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
2154 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
2155 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
2156 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
2157 missing in Debian).</p>
2158
2159 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
2160 scripts
2161 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
2162 and a administrative web interface
2163 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
2164 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
2165 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
2166 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
2167 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
2168 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
2169 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
2170 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
2171 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
2172 this is really working yet, see
2173 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
2174 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
2175 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
2176 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
2177 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
2178 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
2179 with lots of half baked features.</p>
2180
2181 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
2182 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
2183 at.</p>
2184
2185 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
2186
2187 <ol>
2188
2189 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
2190 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
2191 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
2192 to the Debian installer:<p>
2193 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
2194
2195 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
2196 install on.</li>
2197
2198 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
2199 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
2200
2201 </ol>
2202
2203 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
2204
2205 <ol>
2206
2207 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
2208 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
2209 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
2210 <pre>
2211 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
2212 </pre></li>
2213 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
2214 <pre>
2215 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
2216    apt-key add -
2217 apt-get update
2218 apt-get install freedombox-setup
2219 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
2220 </pre></li>
2221 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
2222
2223 </ol>
2224
2225 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
2226 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
2227 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
2228 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
2229 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
2230
2231 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
2232 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
2233 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
2234 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
2235
2236 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
2237 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
2238 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
2239 irc.debian.org and the
2240 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
2241 mailing list</a>.</p>
2242
2243 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
2244 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
2245 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
2246 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
2247 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
2248 default password is 'secret'.</p>
2249
2250       </div>
2251       <div class="tags">
2252
2253
2254         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>.
2255
2256
2257       </div>
2258     </div>
2259     <div class="padding"></div>
2260
2261     <div class="entry">
2262       <div class="title">
2263         <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>
2264       </div>
2265       <div class="date">
2266         18th August 2013
2267       </div>
2268       <div class="body">
2269         <p>Earlier, I reported about
2270 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
2271 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
2272 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
2273 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
2274 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
2275 currently on the disk.</p>
2276
2277 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
2278 <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>
2279 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
2280 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
2281 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
2282 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
2283 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
2284 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
2285 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
2286 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
2287 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
2288 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
2289 the broken disks.</p>
2290
2291       </div>
2292       <div class="tags">
2293
2294
2295         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>.
2296
2297
2298       </div>
2299     </div>
2300     <div class="padding"></div>
2301
2302     <div class="entry">
2303       <div class="title">
2304         <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>
2305       </div>
2306       <div class="date">
2307         17th July 2013
2308       </div>
2309       <div class="body">
2310         <p>Today I switched to
2311 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
2312 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
2313 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
2314 <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
2315 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
2316 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
2317 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
2318 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
2319 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
2320 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
2321 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
2322 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
2323 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
2324 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
2325 station from now on.</p>
2326
2327 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
2328 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
2329 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
2330 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
2331 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
2332 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
2333 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
2334 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
2335 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
2336 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
2337 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
2338 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
2339
2340 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
2341 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
2342 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
2343 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
2344 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
2345 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
2346 parameters are tuned:</p>
2347
2348 <ul>
2349
2350 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
2351     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
2352
2353 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
2354     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
2355     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
2356
2357 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
2358     systems.</li>
2359
2360 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
2361     /etc/fstab.</li>
2362
2363 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
2364
2365 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
2366     cron.daily).</li>
2367
2368 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
2369     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
2370
2371 </ul>
2372
2373 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
2374 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
2375 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
2376 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
2377 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
2378 from getting the data on the disk (see
2379 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
2380 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
2381 right thing to do.</p>
2382
2383 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
2384 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
2385 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
2386
2387 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
2388 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
2389 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
2390 instead of during my work.</p>
2391
2392 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
2393 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
2394
2395 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
2396 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
2397 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
2398
2399 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
2400 there.</p>
2401
2402 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
2403 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
2404 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
2405 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
2406 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
2407 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
2408 back.</p>
2409
2410       </div>
2411       <div class="tags">
2412
2413
2414         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>.
2415
2416
2417       </div>
2418     </div>
2419     <div class="padding"></div>
2420
2421     <div class="entry">
2422       <div class="title">
2423         <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>
2424       </div>
2425       <div class="date">
2426         10th July 2013
2427       </div>
2428       <div class="body">
2429         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
2430 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
2431 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
2432 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
2433 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
2434 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
2435 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
2436 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
2437
2438 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
2439 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
2440 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
2441 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
2442 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
2443 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
2444 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
2445 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
2446 lock up when I download a new
2447 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
2448 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
2449 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
2450
2451 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2452 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
2453 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2454 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
2455 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2456 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2457
2458 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2459 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
2460 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2461 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
2462 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2463 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2464
2465 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
2466 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
2467 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
2468 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
2469 exist).</p>
2470
2471       </div>
2472       <div class="tags">
2473
2474
2475         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>.
2476
2477
2478       </div>
2479     </div>
2480     <div class="padding"></div>
2481
2482     <div class="entry">
2483       <div class="title">
2484         <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>
2485       </div>
2486       <div class="date">
2487          9th July 2013
2488       </div>
2489       <div class="body">
2490         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
2491 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
2492 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
2493 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
2494 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2495 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
2496 Bitraf</a>.</p>
2497
2498 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
2499 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
2500 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
2501 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
2502 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
2503
2504       </div>
2505       <div class="tags">
2506
2507
2508         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>.
2509
2510
2511       </div>
2512     </div>
2513     <div class="padding"></div>
2514
2515     <div class="entry">
2516       <div class="title">
2517         <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>
2518       </div>
2519       <div class="date">
2520          5th July 2013
2521       </div>
2522       <div class="body">
2523         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
2524 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
2525 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
2526 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
2527 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
2528 ended up picking a
2529 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
2530 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
2531 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
2532 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
2533 on that below.</p>
2534
2535 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
2536 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
2537 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
2538 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
2539 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
2540 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
2541 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
2542 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
2543 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
2544
2545 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
2546 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
2547 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
2548 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
2549 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
2550 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
2551 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
2552
2553 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
2554 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
2555
2556 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
2557 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
2558 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
2559 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
2560 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
2561 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
2562 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
2563 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
2564 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
2565 kernel developers as
2566 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
2567 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
2568 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
2569 Lenovo forums, both for
2570 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
2571 2012-11-10</a> and for
2572 <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
2573 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
2574 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
2575 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
2576 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
2577 There is even a
2578 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
2579 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
2580 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
2581
2582 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
2583 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
2584 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
2585 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
2586 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
2587 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
2588 fixed. :)</p>
2589
2590       </div>
2591       <div class="tags">
2592
2593
2594         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>.
2595
2596
2597       </div>
2598     </div>
2599     <div class="padding"></div>
2600
2601     <div class="entry">
2602       <div class="title">
2603         <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>
2604       </div>
2605       <div class="date">
2606          4th July 2013
2607       </div>
2608       <div class="body">
2609         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
2610 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
2611 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
2612 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
2613 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
2614 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
2615 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
2616 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
2617 with an expencive door stop.</p>
2618
2619 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
2620 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
2621 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
2622 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
2623 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
2624 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
2625 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
2626
2627 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
2628 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
2629 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
2630 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
2631 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
2632 new laptop now. :)</p>
2633
2634 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
2635
2636       </div>
2637       <div class="tags">
2638
2639
2640         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>.
2641
2642
2643       </div>
2644     </div>
2645     <div class="padding"></div>
2646
2647     <div class="entry">
2648       <div class="title">
2649         <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>
2650       </div>
2651       <div class="date">
2652         25th June 2013
2653       </div>
2654       <div class="body">
2655         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
2656 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
2657 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
2658 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
2659 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
2660 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
2661 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
2662 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
2663 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
2664 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
2665 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
2666
2667 <p><pre>
2668 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2669 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
2670 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
2671 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
2672 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
2673 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
2674 firmware-ipw2x00
2675 firmware-ipw2x00
2676 Preconfiguring packages ...
2677 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
2678 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
2679 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
2680 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
2681 #
2682 </pre></p>
2683
2684 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
2685 printed instead:</p>
2686
2687 <p><pre>
2688 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2689 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
2690 #
2691 </pre></p>
2692
2693 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
2694 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
2695
2696 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
2697 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
2698 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
2699 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
2700 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
2701 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
2702 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
2703 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
2704 machine.</p>
2705
2706 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
2707 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
2708 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
2709 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
2710 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
2711 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
2712
2713       </div>
2714       <div class="tags">
2715
2716
2717         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>.
2718
2719
2720       </div>
2721     </div>
2722     <div class="padding"></div>
2723
2724     <div class="entry">
2725       <div class="title">
2726         <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>
2727       </div>
2728       <div class="date">
2729         11th June 2013
2730       </div>
2731       <div class="body">
2732         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
2733 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
2734 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
2735 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
2736 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
2737 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
2738 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
2739 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
2740 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
2741 i915 driver used by the
2742 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2743 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
2744
2745 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
2746 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
2747 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
2748 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
2749 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
2750
2751 <pre>
2752 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
2753 update-initramfs -u -k all
2754 </pre>
2755
2756 <p>Since March 2012 there is
2757 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
2758 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
2759 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
2760 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
2761 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
2762 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
2763 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
2764 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
2765 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
2766 number.</p>
2767
2768 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
2769 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
2770
2771 <p><pre>
2772 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
2773     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
2774     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2775  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
2776  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
2777     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
2778  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
2779     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
2780  Latency: 0
2781  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
2782  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
2783  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
2784  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
2785  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
2786  Capabilities: <access denied>
2787  Kernel driver in use: i915
2788 </pre></p>
2789
2790 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
2791
2792 <p><pre>
2793 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
2794        ...
2795         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
2796         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
2797        ...
2798 }
2799 </pre></p>
2800
2801 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
2802 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
2803 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
2804 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
2805 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
2806 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
2807 yet shown up in
2808 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
2809 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
2810 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
2811 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
2812 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
2813 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
2814
2815 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
2816 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
2817 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
2818 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
2819 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
2820 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
2821 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
2822 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
2823 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
2824 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
2825 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
2826 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
2827
2828 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
2829 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
2830 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
2831 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
2832 backlight.</p>
2833
2834       </div>
2835       <div class="tags">
2836
2837
2838         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>.
2839
2840
2841       </div>
2842     </div>
2843     <div class="padding"></div>
2844
2845     <div class="entry">
2846       <div class="title">
2847         <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>
2848       </div>
2849       <div class="date">
2850         27th May 2013
2851       </div>
2852       <div class="body">
2853         <p>Two days ago, I asked
2854 <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
2855 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
2856 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
2857 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
2858 and Windows 8.</p>
2859
2860 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
2861 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
2862 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
2863 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
2864 enough to tell.</p>
2865
2866 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
2867 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
2868 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
2869 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
2870 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
2871 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
2872 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
2873 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
2874 to follow.</p>
2875
2876 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
2877 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
2878 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
2879 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
2880 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
2881 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
2882 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
2883 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
2884
2885 <p>I've updated the
2886 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
2887 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
2888 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
2889 machine.</p>
2890
2891 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
2892 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
2893
2894       </div>
2895       <div class="tags">
2896
2897
2898         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>.
2899
2900
2901       </div>
2902     </div>
2903     <div class="padding"></div>
2904
2905     <div class="entry">
2906       <div class="title">
2907         <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>
2908       </div>
2909       <div class="date">
2910         25th May 2013
2911       </div>
2912       <div class="body">
2913         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
2914 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
2915 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
2916 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
2917 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
2918 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
2919
2920 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
2921 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
2922 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
2923 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
2924 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
2925 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
2926 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
2927 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
2928 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
2929 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
2930
2931 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
2932 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2933 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
2934 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
2935 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
2936 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
2937
2938 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
2939 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
2940 on new Laptops?</p>
2941
2942       </div>
2943       <div class="tags">
2944
2945
2946         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>.
2947
2948
2949       </div>
2950     </div>
2951     <div class="padding"></div>
2952
2953     <div class="entry">
2954       <div class="title">
2955         <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>
2956       </div>
2957       <div class="date">
2958         17th May 2013
2959       </div>
2960       <div class="body">
2961         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
2962 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
2963 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
2964 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
2965 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
2966 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
2967 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
2968 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
2969 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
2970 donate some money</a>.
2971
2972 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
2973 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
2974 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
2975 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
2976 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
2977
2978 <p>The script,
2979 <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/>
2980 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
2981 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
2982 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
2983
2984 <ol>
2985
2986 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
2987 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
2988 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
2989     our configuration.</li>
2990 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
2991     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
2992     according to the profile specified in the config above,
2993     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
2994 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
2995     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
2996 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
2997
2998 </ol>
2999
3000 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
3001 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
3002 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
3003 the needed packages.</p>
3004
3005 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
3006 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
3007 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
3008 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
3009 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
3010 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
3011
3012 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
3013 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
3014 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
3015
3016 <p><pre>
3017 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
3018 DESKTOP="lxde"
3019 </pre></p>
3020
3021 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
3022 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
3023 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
3024 boot.</p>
3025
3026       </div>
3027       <div class="tags">
3028
3029
3030         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>.
3031
3032
3033       </div>
3034     </div>
3035     <div class="padding"></div>
3036
3037     <div class="entry">
3038       <div class="title">
3039         <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>
3040       </div>
3041       <div class="date">
3042         11th May 2013
3043       </div>
3044       <div class="body">
3045         <P>In January,
3046 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
3047 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
3048 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
3049 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
3050 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
3051 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
3052 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
3053 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
3054 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
3055 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
3056 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
3057 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
3058
3059 <p><table>
3060 <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>
3061 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
3062 <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>
3063 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
3064 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
3065 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
3066 <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>
3067 <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>
3068 <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>
3069 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
3070 </table></p>
3071
3072 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
3073 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
3074 available in experimental.</p>
3075
3076 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
3077 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
3078 for LEGO designers.</p>
3079
3080       </div>
3081       <div class="tags">
3082
3083
3084         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>.
3085
3086
3087       </div>
3088     </div>
3089     <div class="padding"></div>
3090
3091     <div class="entry">
3092       <div class="title">
3093         <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>
3094       </div>
3095       <div class="date">
3096          5th May 2013
3097       </div>
3098       <div class="body">
3099         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
3100 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
3101 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
3102 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
3103 soon.</p>
3104
3105 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
3106 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
3107 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
3108 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
3109 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
3110 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
3111 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
3112 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
3113 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
3114 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
3115 Edu.</a>
3116
3117 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
3118 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
3119 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
3120 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
3121 follow.<p>
3122
3123       </div>
3124       <div class="tags">
3125
3126
3127         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>.
3128
3129
3130       </div>
3131     </div>
3132     <div class="padding"></div>
3133
3134     <div class="entry">
3135       <div class="title">
3136         <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>
3137       </div>
3138       <div class="date">
3139          3rd April 2013
3140       </div>
3141       <div class="body">
3142         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
3143 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
3144 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
3145 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
3146
3147 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
3148 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
3149 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
3150 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
3151 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
3152 BTS. :)</p>
3153
3154       </div>
3155       <div class="tags">
3156
3157
3158         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>.
3159
3160
3161       </div>
3162     </div>
3163     <div class="padding"></div>
3164
3165     <div class="entry">
3166       <div class="title">
3167         <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>
3168       </div>
3169       <div class="date">
3170          2nd February 2013
3171       </div>
3172       <div class="body">
3173         <p>My
3174 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
3175 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
3176 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
3177 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
3178 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
3179 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
3180 version too.</p>
3181
3182 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
3183 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
3184 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
3185 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
3186 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
3187 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
3188 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
3189 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
3190
3191 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
3192 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
3193 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
3194 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
3195 it. :)</p>
3196
3197 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3198 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3199 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3200
3201       </div>
3202       <div class="tags">
3203
3204
3205         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>.
3206
3207
3208       </div>
3209     </div>
3210     <div class="padding"></div>
3211
3212     <div class="entry">
3213       <div class="title">
3214         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
3215       </div>
3216       <div class="date">
3217         22nd January 2013
3218       </div>
3219       <div class="body">
3220         <p>Yesterday, I
3221 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
3222 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
3223 pluggable hardware devices, which I
3224 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
3225 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
3226 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
3227 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
3228 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
3229 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
3230 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
3231 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
3232 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
3233 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
3234
3235 <pre>
3236 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
3237 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
3238 </pre>
3239
3240 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
3241 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
3242 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
3243 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
3244
3245 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
3246 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
3247 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
3248 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
3249 word.</p>
3250
3251 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
3252 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
3253 process.</p>
3254
3255 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
3256 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
3257
3258       </div>
3259       <div class="tags">
3260
3261
3262         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>.
3263
3264
3265       </div>
3266     </div>
3267     <div class="padding"></div>
3268
3269     <div class="entry">
3270       <div class="title">
3271         <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>
3272       </div>
3273       <div class="date">
3274         21st January 2013
3275       </div>
3276       <div class="body">
3277         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
3278 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
3279 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
3280 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
3281 it, fetch the
3282 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
3283 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
3284 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
3285 autostart script.</p>
3286
3287 <p>The design is simple:</p>
3288
3289 <ul>
3290
3291 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
3292 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
3293
3294 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
3295 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
3296 initially did.</li>
3297
3298 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
3299 the APT database, a database
3300 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
3301 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
3302
3303 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
3304 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
3305 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
3306 package or packages.</li>
3307
3308 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
3309 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
3310
3311 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
3312 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
3313
3314 </ul>
3315
3316 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
3317 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
3318 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
3319 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
3320
3321 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
3322 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
3323 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
3324 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
3325 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
3326
3327 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
3328 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
3329 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
3330 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
3331 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
3332 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
3333 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
3334 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
3335
3336 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
3337 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
3338 '<tt>svn checkout
3339 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
3340 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
3341 devscripts package.</p>
3342
3343 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
3344 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
3345 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
3346 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
3347 instructions</a> for details.</p>
3348
3349       </div>
3350       <div class="tags">
3351
3352
3353         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>.
3354
3355
3356       </div>
3357     </div>
3358     <div class="padding"></div>
3359
3360     <div class="entry">
3361       <div class="title">
3362         <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>
3363       </div>
3364       <div class="date">
3365         19th January 2013
3366       </div>
3367       <div class="body">
3368         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
3369 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
3370 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
3371 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
3372 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
3373 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
3374 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
3375 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
3376 not a durable solution.
3377
3378 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
3379 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
3380
3381 <ul>
3382
3383 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
3384   than A4).</li>
3385 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
3386 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
3387 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
3388 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
3389 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
3390 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
3391 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
3392 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
3393 size).</li>
3394 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
3395   X.org packages.</li>
3396 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
3397   the time).
3398
3399 </ul>
3400
3401 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
3402 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
3403 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
3404 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
3405 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
3406 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
3407 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
3408 still be useful.</p>
3409
3410 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
3411 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
3412 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
3413 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
3414 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
3415 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
3416
3417       </div>
3418       <div class="tags">
3419
3420
3421         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>.
3422
3423
3424       </div>
3425     </div>
3426     <div class="padding"></div>
3427
3428     <div class="entry">
3429       <div class="title">
3430         <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>
3431       </div>
3432       <div class="date">
3433         18th January 2013
3434       </div>
3435       <div class="body">
3436         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
3437 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
3438 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
3439 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
3440 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
3441 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
3442 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
3443
3444 <pre>
3445 #!/usr/bin/python
3446 import sys
3447 import apt
3448 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3449     cache = apt.Cache()
3450     cache.open(None)
3451     thepkgs = []
3452     for pkg in cache:
3453         version = pkg.candidate
3454         if version is None:
3455             version = pkg.installed
3456         if version is None:
3457             continue
3458         record = version.record
3459         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
3460             continue
3461         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
3462         for t in mime_types:
3463             t = t.rstrip().strip()
3464             if t == mimetype:
3465                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
3466     return thepkgs
3467 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
3468 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
3469     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
3470 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
3471 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3472     print "  %s" %pkg
3473 </pre>
3474
3475 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
3476
3477 <pre>
3478 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
3479 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
3480   gecko-mediaplayer
3481 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
3482 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
3483   browser-plugin-gnash
3484 %
3485 </pre>
3486
3487 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
3488 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
3489 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
3490 anyone working on adding it?</p>
3491
3492 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
3493 request for icweasel support for this feature is
3494 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
3495 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
3496 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
3497 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
3498
3499       </div>
3500       <div class="tags">
3501
3502
3503         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>.
3504
3505
3506       </div>
3507     </div>
3508     <div class="padding"></div>
3509
3510     <div class="entry">
3511       <div class="title">
3512         <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>
3513       </div>
3514       <div class="date">
3515         16th January 2013
3516       </div>
3517       <div class="body">
3518         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
3519 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
3520 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
3521 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
3522 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
3523 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
3524 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
3525 downloaded by the browser.</p>
3526
3527 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
3528 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
3529 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
3530 can be found on the
3531 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
3532 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
3533 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
3534 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
3535 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
3536
3537 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
3538
3539 <pre>
3540   count MIME type
3541   ----- -----------------------
3542      32 text/plain
3543      30 audio/mpeg
3544      29 image/png
3545      28 image/jpeg
3546      27 application/ogg
3547      26 audio/x-mp3
3548      25 image/tiff
3549      25 image/gif
3550      22 image/bmp
3551      22 audio/x-wav
3552      20 audio/x-flac
3553      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3554      18 video/x-ms-asf
3555      18 audio/x-musepack
3556      18 audio/x-mpeg
3557      18 application/x-ogg
3558      17 video/mpeg
3559      17 audio/x-scpls
3560      17 audio/ogg
3561      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3562 </pre>
3563
3564 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
3565
3566 <pre>
3567   count MIME type
3568   ----- -----------------------
3569      33 text/plain
3570      32 image/png
3571      32 image/jpeg
3572      29 audio/mpeg
3573      27 image/gif
3574      26 image/tiff
3575      26 application/ogg
3576      25 audio/x-mp3
3577      22 image/bmp
3578      21 audio/x-wav
3579      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3580      19 audio/x-mpeg
3581      18 video/mpeg
3582      18 audio/x-scpls
3583      18 audio/x-flac
3584      18 application/x-ogg
3585      17 video/x-ms-asf
3586      17 text/html
3587      17 audio/x-musepack
3588      16 image/x-xbitmap
3589 </pre>
3590
3591 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
3592
3593 <pre>
3594   count MIME type
3595   ----- -----------------------
3596      31 text/plain
3597      31 image/png
3598      31 image/jpeg
3599      29 audio/mpeg
3600      28 application/ogg
3601      27 image/gif
3602      26 image/tiff
3603      26 audio/x-mp3
3604      23 audio/x-wav
3605      22 image/bmp
3606      21 audio/x-flac
3607      20 audio/x-mpegurl
3608      19 audio/x-mpeg
3609      18 video/x-ms-asf
3610      18 video/mpeg
3611      18 audio/x-scpls
3612      18 application/x-ogg
3613      17 audio/x-musepack
3614      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3615      16 video/x-msvideo
3616 </pre>
3617
3618 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
3619 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
3620 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
3621 issues.</p>
3622
3623 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
3624 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
3625
3626       </div>
3627       <div class="tags">
3628
3629
3630         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>.
3631
3632
3633       </div>
3634     </div>
3635     <div class="padding"></div>
3636
3637     <div class="entry">
3638       <div class="title">
3639         <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>
3640       </div>
3641       <div class="date">
3642         15th January 2013
3643       </div>
3644       <div class="body">
3645         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
3646 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
3647 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
3648 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
3649 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
3650 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
3651 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
3652 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
3653 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
3654 packages.</p>
3655
3656 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
3657 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
3658 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
3659 modalias.</p>
3660
3661 <p><blockquote>
3662 Package: package-name
3663 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
3664 </blockquote></p>
3665
3666 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
3667 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
3668
3669 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
3670 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
3671
3672 <p><blockquote>
3673 Package: cheese
3674 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
3675 </blockquote></p>
3676
3677 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
3678 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
3679
3680 <p><blockquote>
3681 Package: pcmciautils
3682 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
3683 </blockquote></p>
3684
3685 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
3686 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
3687
3688 <p><blockquote>
3689 Package: colorhug-client
3690 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
3691 </blockquote></p>
3692
3693 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
3694 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
3695 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
3696
3697 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
3698 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
3699 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
3700 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
3701 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
3702 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
3703 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
3704 Raring.</p>
3705
3706 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
3707 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
3708 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
3709 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
3710 try the
3711 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
3712 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
3713 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
3714 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
3715
3716 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
3717 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
3718
3719 <p><blockquote>
3720 % ./hw-support-lookup
3721 <br>yubikey-personalization
3722 <br>%
3723 </blockquote></p>
3724
3725 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
3726 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
3727
3728 <p><blockquote>
3729 % ./hw-support-lookup
3730 <br>pcmciautils
3731 <br>%
3732 </blockquote></p>
3733
3734 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
3735 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
3736 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
3737
3738 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
3739 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
3740 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
3741 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
3742 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
3743 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
3744 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
3745 see if it work.</p>
3746
3747 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3748 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3749 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3750 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3751
3752       </div>
3753       <div class="tags">
3754
3755
3756         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>.
3757
3758
3759       </div>
3760     </div>
3761     <div class="padding"></div>
3762
3763     <div class="entry">
3764       <div class="title">
3765         <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>
3766       </div>
3767       <div class="date">
3768         14th January 2013
3769       </div>
3770       <div class="body">
3771         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
3772 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
3773 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
3774 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
3775 in
3776 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3777 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
3778
3779 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
3780
3781 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
3782 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
3783 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
3784 &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;,
3785 &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
3786 &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;.
3787
3788 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
3789 this shell script:</p>
3790
3791 <pre>
3792 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
3793 </pre>
3794
3795 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
3796 using modinfo:</p>
3797
3798 <pre>
3799 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
3800 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
3801 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
3802 %
3803 </pre>
3804
3805 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
3806
3807 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
3808 Bridge memory controller:</p>
3809
3810 <p><blockquote>
3811 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
3812 </blockquote></p>
3813
3814 <p>This represent these values:</p>
3815
3816 <pre>
3817  v   00008086  (vendor)
3818  d   00002770  (device)
3819  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
3820  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
3821  bc  06        (bus class)
3822  sc  00        (bus subclass)
3823  i   00        (interface)
3824 </pre>
3825
3826 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
3827 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
3828 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
3829 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
3830
3831 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
3832 means.</p>
3833
3834 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
3835
3836 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
3837 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
3838
3839 <p><blockquote>
3840 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
3841 </blockquote></p>
3842
3843 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
3844
3845 <pre>
3846  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
3847  p    0001  (device product)
3848  d    0206  (bcddevice)
3849  dc     09  (device class)
3850  dsc    00  (device subclass)
3851  dp     00  (device protocol)
3852  ic     09  (interface class)
3853  isc    00  (interface subclass)
3854  ip     00  (interface protocol)
3855 </pre>
3856
3857 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
3858 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
3859 these alias entries show up:</p>
3860
3861 <p><blockquote>
3862 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
3863 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
3864 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
3865 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
3866 </blockquote></p>
3867
3868 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
3869 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
3870 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
3871
3872 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
3873
3874 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
3875 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
3876
3877 <p><blockquote>
3878 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3879 </blockquote></p>
3880
3881 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
3882
3883 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
3884
3885 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
3886 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
3887 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
3888
3889 <p><blockquote>
3890 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
3891 </blockquote></p>
3892
3893 <p>The values present are</p>
3894
3895 <pre>
3896  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
3897  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
3898  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
3899  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
3900  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
3901  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
3902  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
3903  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
3904  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
3905  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
3906  ct   10             (chassis type)
3907  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
3908 </pre>
3909
3910 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
3911 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
3912
3913 <pre>
3914   3 Desktop
3915   4 Low Profile Desktop
3916   5 Pizza Box
3917   6 Mini Tower
3918   7 Tower
3919   8 Portable
3920   9 Laptop
3921  10 Notebook
3922  11 Hand Held
3923  12 Docking Station
3924  13 All In One
3925  14 Sub Notebook
3926  15 Space-saving
3927  16 Lunch Box
3928  17 Main Server Chassis
3929  18 Expansion Chassis
3930  19 Sub Chassis
3931  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
3932  21 Peripheral Chassis
3933  22 RAID Chassis
3934  23 Rack Mount Chassis
3935  24 Sealed-case PC
3936  25 Multi-system
3937  26 CompactPCI
3938  27 AdvancedTCA
3939  28 Blade
3940  29 Blade Enclosing
3941 </pre>
3942
3943 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
3944 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
3945 claim it is a desktop.</p>
3946
3947 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
3948
3949 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
3950 test machine:</p>
3951
3952 <p><blockquote>
3953 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
3954 </blockquote></p>
3955
3956 <p>The values present are</p>
3957
3958 <pre>
3959   ty  01  (type)
3960   pr  00  (prototype)
3961   id  00  (id)
3962   ex  00  (extra)
3963 </pre>
3964
3965 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
3966 the valid values are.</p>
3967
3968 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
3969
3970 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
3971 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
3972 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
3973 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
3974 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
3975 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
3976 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
3977
3978 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
3979
3980 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
3981 one can use the following shell script:</p>
3982
3983 <pre>
3984   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
3985     echo "$id" ; \
3986     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
3987   done
3988 </pre>
3989
3990 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
3991 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
3992
3993 <pre>
3994   acpi:ACPI0003:
3995     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
3996   acpi:device:
3997   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
3998   acpi:IBM0068:
3999     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
4000     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
4001     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
4002     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
4003   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4004     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
4005     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
4006     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
4007   [...]
4008 </pre>
4009
4010 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4011 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4012 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4013 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4014
4015 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
4016 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
4017 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
4018
4019       </div>
4020       <div class="tags">
4021
4022
4023         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>.
4024
4025
4026       </div>
4027     </div>
4028     <div class="padding"></div>
4029
4030     <div class="entry">
4031       <div class="title">
4032         <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>
4033       </div>
4034       <div class="date">
4035         10th January 2013
4036       </div>
4037       <div class="body">
4038         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
4039 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
4040 Launcher and updated the Debian package
4041 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
4042 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
4043 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
4044 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
4045 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
4046 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
4047 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
4048 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
4049 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
4050 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
4051 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
4052 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
4053 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
4054 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
4055 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
4056
4057       </div>
4058       <div class="tags">
4059
4060
4061         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>.
4062
4063
4064       </div>
4065     </div>
4066     <div class="padding"></div>
4067
4068     <div class="entry">
4069       <div class="title">
4070         <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>
4071       </div>
4072       <div class="date">
4073          9th January 2013
4074       </div>
4075       <div class="body">
4076         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
4077 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
4078 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
4079 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
4080 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
4081 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
4082 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
4083 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
4084 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
4085 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
4086 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
4087
4088 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
4089 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
4090 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
4091 simple:
4092
4093 <ul>
4094
4095 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
4096   starting when a user log in.</li>
4097
4098 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
4099   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
4100
4101 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
4102   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
4103   packages.</li>
4104
4105 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
4106   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
4107
4108 </ul>
4109
4110 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
4111 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
4112 discover database to find packages and
4113 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
4114 packages.</p>
4115
4116 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
4117 draft package is now checked into
4118 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
4119 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
4120 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
4121 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
4122 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
4123 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
4124 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
4125 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
4126 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
4127 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
4128 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
4129 because of the freeze).</p>
4130
4131 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
4132 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
4133 inserted):</p>
4134
4135 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
4136
4137 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
4138 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
4139 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
4140
4141 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
4142 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
4143 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
4144 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
4145 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
4146 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
4147 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
4148
4149 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
4150 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
4151 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
4152 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
4153 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
4154 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
4155 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
4156 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
4157 not be installed?</p>
4158
4159 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
4160 please send me an email. :)</p>
4161
4162       </div>
4163       <div class="tags">
4164
4165
4166         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>.
4167
4168
4169       </div>
4170     </div>
4171     <div class="padding"></div>
4172
4173     <div class="entry">
4174       <div class="title">
4175         <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>
4176       </div>
4177       <div class="date">
4178          2nd January 2013
4179       </div>
4180       <div class="body">
4181         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
4182 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
4183 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
4184 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
4185 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
4186 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
4187 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
4188 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
4189 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
4190 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
4191
4192 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
4193 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
4194 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
4195
4196       </div>
4197       <div class="tags">
4198
4199
4200         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>.
4201
4202
4203       </div>
4204     </div>
4205     <div class="padding"></div>
4206
4207     <div class="entry">
4208       <div class="title">
4209         <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>
4210       </div>
4211       <div class="date">
4212         25th December 2012
4213       </div>
4214       <div class="body">
4215         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
4216 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
4217
4218 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
4219 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
4220 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
4221 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
4222 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
4223 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
4224 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
4225 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
4226 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
4227 name.</p>
4228
4229 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
4230 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
4231 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
4232
4233 <blockquote><pre>
4234 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
4235 cd bitcoin
4236 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
4237 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
4238 </pre></blockquote>
4239
4240 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
4241 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
4242 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
4243 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
4244 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
4245 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
4246 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
4247 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
4248 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
4249
4250 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4251 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4252 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4253
4254       </div>
4255       <div class="tags">
4256
4257
4258         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>.
4259
4260
4261       </div>
4262     </div>
4263     <div class="padding"></div>
4264
4265     <div class="entry">
4266       <div class="title">
4267         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
4268       </div>
4269       <div class="date">
4270         21st December 2012
4271       </div>
4272       <div class="body">
4273         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
4274 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
4275 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
4276 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
4277 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
4278 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
4279 is now maintained by a
4280 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
4281 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
4282 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
4283 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
4284 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
4285 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
4286 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
4287 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
4288 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
4289 Corallo in a
4290 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
4291 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
4292 Debian package.</p>
4293
4294 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
4295 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
4296 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
4297 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
4298 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
4299 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
4300 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
4301 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
4302 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
4303 new version to unstable.
4304
4305 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
4306 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
4307 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
4308 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
4309 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
4310 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
4311 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
4312 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
4313 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
4314 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
4315 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
4316 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
4317 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
4318 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
4319 have not tested them.</p>
4320
4321 <p>My
4322 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
4323 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
4324 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
4325 years ago, as can be
4326 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
4327 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
4328 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
4329 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
4330 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
4331 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
4332 the same address as last time,
4333 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4334
4335       </div>
4336       <div class="tags">
4337
4338
4339         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>.
4340
4341
4342       </div>
4343     </div>
4344     <div class="padding"></div>
4345
4346     <div class="entry">
4347       <div class="title">
4348         <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>
4349       </div>
4350       <div class="date">
4351          7th September 2012
4352       </div>
4353       <div class="body">
4354         <p>As I
4355 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
4356 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
4357 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
4358 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
4359 repository for the project</a>.</p>
4360
4361 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
4362 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
4363 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
4364 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
4365
4366 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
4367 PostScript formats at
4368 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
4369 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
4370
4371       </div>
4372       <div class="tags">
4373
4374
4375         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>.
4376
4377
4378       </div>
4379     </div>
4380     <div class="padding"></div>
4381
4382     <div class="entry">
4383       <div class="title">
4384         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
4385       </div>
4386       <div class="date">
4387         16th August 2012
4388       </div>
4389       <div class="body">
4390         <p>I dag fyller
4391 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
4392 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
4393 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
4394
4395       </div>
4396       <div class="tags">
4397
4398
4399         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>.
4400
4401
4402       </div>
4403     </div>
4404     <div class="padding"></div>
4405
4406     <div class="entry">
4407       <div class="title">
4408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
4409       </div>
4410       <div class="date">
4411         24th June 2012
4412       </div>
4413       <div class="body">
4414         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
4415 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
4416 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
4417 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
4418 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
4419 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
4420 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
4421 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
4422 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
4423 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
4424 missing in my book.</p>
4425
4426 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
4427 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
4428 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
4429 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
4430 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
4431 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
4432 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
4433
4434       </div>
4435       <div class="tags">
4436
4437
4438         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>.
4439
4440
4441       </div>
4442     </div>
4443     <div class="padding"></div>
4444
4445     <div class="entry">
4446       <div class="title">
4447         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
4448       </div>
4449       <div class="date">
4450         21st November 2011
4451       </div>
4452       <div class="body">
4453         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
4454 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
4455 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
4456 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
4457 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
4458 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
4459 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
4460 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
4461 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
4462 the tools to do so.</p>
4463
4464 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
4465 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
4466 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
4467 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
4468
4469 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
4470 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
4471 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
4472 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
4473 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
4474 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
4475 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
4476 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
4477
4478 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
4479 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
4480 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
4481
4482 <p><pre>
4483 #!/usr/bin/perl
4484 use strict;
4485 use warnings;
4486 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
4487 BEGIN {
4488     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
4489     my %rhelmodules = (
4490         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
4491         );
4492     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
4493         eval "use $module;";
4494         if ($@) {
4495             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
4496             system("yum install -y $pkg");
4497             eval "use $module;";
4498         }
4499     }
4500 }
4501 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
4502
4503 upgrade_dell();
4504
4505 exit 0;
4506
4507 sub run_firmware_script {
4508     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
4509     unless ($script) {
4510         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
4511         exit 1
4512     }
4513     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
4514
4515     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
4516         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
4517     } else {
4518         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
4519     }
4520 }
4521
4522 sub run_firmware_scripts {
4523     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
4524     # Run firmware packages
4525     for my $dir (@dirs) {
4526         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
4527         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
4528         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
4529             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
4530             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
4531         }
4532         closedir $dh;
4533     }
4534 }
4535
4536 sub download {
4537     my $url = shift;
4538     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
4539     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
4540 }
4541
4542 sub upgrade_dell {
4543     my @dirs;
4544     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4545     chomp $product;
4546
4547     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
4548
4549         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
4550         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
4551
4552         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
4553             CLEANUP => 1
4554             );
4555         chdir($tmpdir);
4556         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
4557         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
4558         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
4559         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
4560         my $fwopts = "-q";
4561         if (@paths) {
4562             for my $url (@paths) {
4563                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
4564             }
4565             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
4566         } else {
4567             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4568             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4569         }
4570         chdir('/');
4571     } else {
4572         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4573         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4574     }
4575 }
4576
4577 sub fetch_dell_fw {
4578     my $path = shift;
4579     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
4580     download($url);
4581 }
4582
4583 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
4584 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
4585 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
4586 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
4587     my $filename = shift;
4588
4589     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4590     chomp $product;
4591     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
4592
4593     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
4594
4595     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
4596     my @paths;
4597     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
4598         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
4599         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
4600         my $oscode;
4601         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
4602             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
4603         } else {
4604             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
4605         }
4606         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
4607         {
4608             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
4609         }
4610     }
4611     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
4612         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
4613
4614         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
4615         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
4616
4617         my $cpath = $component->{path};
4618         for my $path (@paths) {
4619             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
4620                 push(@paths, $cpath);
4621             }
4622         }
4623     }
4624     return @paths;
4625 }
4626 </pre>
4627
4628 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
4629 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
4630 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
4631 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
4632 outdated.</p>
4633
4634       </div>
4635       <div class="tags">
4636
4637
4638         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>.
4639
4640
4641       </div>
4642     </div>
4643     <div class="padding"></div>
4644
4645     <div class="entry">
4646       <div class="title">
4647         <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>
4648       </div>
4649       <div class="date">
4650          4th August 2011
4651       </div>
4652       <div class="body">
4653         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
4654 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
4655 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
4656 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
4657 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
4658 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
4659 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
4660 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
4661 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
4662
4663 <p><blockquote>
4664 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
4665 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
4666 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
4667 </blockquote></p>
4668
4669 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
4670 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
4671 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
4672 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
4673 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
4674 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
4675 hard to explain.</p>
4676
4677 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
4678 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
4679 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
4680 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
4681 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
4682 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
4683 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
4684 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
4685 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
4686 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
4687 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
4688 mode).</p>
4689
4690 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
4691 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
4692 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
4693 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
4694 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
4695 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
4696 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
4697 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
4698 after visiting single user mode.</p>
4699
4700 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
4701 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
4702 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
4703 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
4704 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
4705 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
4706 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
4707 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
4708
4709 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
4710 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
4711 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
4712
4713       </div>
4714       <div class="tags">
4715
4716
4717         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>.
4718
4719
4720       </div>
4721     </div>
4722     <div class="padding"></div>
4723
4724     <div class="entry">
4725       <div class="title">
4726         <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>
4727       </div>
4728       <div class="date">
4729         30th July 2011
4730       </div>
4731       <div class="body">
4732         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
4733 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
4734 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
4735 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
4736 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
4737 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
4738 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
4739 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
4740 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
4741 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
4742 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
4743 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4744 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4745
4746 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4747 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4748 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4749 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4750 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4751 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4752 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4753 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4754 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4755
4756 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4757 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4758 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4759 is presented.</p>
4760
4761 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4762 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4763 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4764 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4765 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4766 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4767 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4768 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4769 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4770 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4771 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4772 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4773 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4774 find time to push this forward.</p>
4775
4776       </div>
4777       <div class="tags">
4778
4779
4780         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>.
4781
4782
4783       </div>
4784     </div>
4785     <div class="padding"></div>
4786
4787     <div class="entry">
4788       <div class="title">
4789         <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>
4790       </div>
4791       <div class="date">
4792         29th July 2011
4793       </div>
4794       <div class="body">
4795         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4796 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4797 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4798 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4799 issues.</p>
4800
4801 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4802 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4803 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4804
4805 <ol>
4806
4807 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4808 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4809 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4810 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4811 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4812 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4813 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4814 Debian.</li>
4815
4816 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4817 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4818 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4819 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4820 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4821 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4822 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4823 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
4824 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
4825 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
4826 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
4827 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
4828 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
4829
4830 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
4831 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
4832 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
4833 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
4834 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
4835 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
4836 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
4837 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
4838 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
4839 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
4840
4841 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
4842 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
4843 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
4844 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
4845 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
4846 latter behaviour.</li>
4847
4848 </ol>
4849
4850 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
4851 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
4852 it do not matter much.</p>
4853
4854 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
4855 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
4856 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
4857
4858       </div>
4859       <div class="tags">
4860
4861
4862         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4863
4864
4865       </div>
4866     </div>
4867     <div class="padding"></div>
4868
4869     <div class="entry">
4870       <div class="title">
4871         <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>
4872       </div>
4873       <div class="date">
4874         26th July 2011
4875       </div>
4876       <div class="body">
4877         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
4878 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
4879 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
4880 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
4881 security support for a few years.</p>
4882
4883 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
4884 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
4885 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
4886 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
4887 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
4888 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
4889 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
4890 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
4891 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
4892 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
4893 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
4894 easier in the future.</p>
4895
4896 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
4897 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
4898 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
4899 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
4900 do not have time for.</p>
4901
4902       </div>
4903       <div class="tags">
4904
4905
4906         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>.
4907
4908
4909       </div>
4910     </div>
4911     <div class="padding"></div>
4912
4913     <div class="entry">
4914       <div class="title">
4915         <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>
4916       </div>
4917       <div class="date">
4918          3rd April 2011
4919       </div>
4920       <div class="body">
4921         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
4922 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
4923 update in English.</p>
4924
4925 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
4926 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
4927 of the British service
4928 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
4929 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
4930 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
4931 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
4932 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
4933 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
4934 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
4935 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
4936 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
4937 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
4938 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
4939 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
4940 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
4941
4942 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
4943 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
4944 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
4945 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
4946 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
4947 public infrastructure.</p>
4948
4949 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
4950 such service?</p>
4951
4952       </div>
4953       <div class="tags">
4954
4955
4956         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>.
4957
4958
4959       </div>
4960     </div>
4961     <div class="padding"></div>
4962
4963     <div class="entry">
4964       <div class="title">
4965         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
4966       </div>
4967       <div class="date">
4968         28th January 2011
4969       </div>
4970       <div class="body">
4971         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
4972 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
4973 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
4974 available on the Internet, and check our locally
4975 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
4976 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
4977 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
4978 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
4979 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
4980 out which security holes were present in our free software
4981 collection.</p>
4982
4983 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
4984 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
4985 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
4986 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
4987 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
4988 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
4989 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
4990 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
4991 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
4992 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
4993 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
4994 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
4995 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
4996 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
4997 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
4998 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
4999
5000 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
5001 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
5002 check out, one could look up
5003 <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
5004 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
5005 The most recent one is
5006 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
5007 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
5008 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
5009
5010 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
5011 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
5012 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
5013 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
5014 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
5015 security issues out.</p>
5016
5017 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
5018 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
5019 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
5020 RHEL is providing
5021 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
5022 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
5023 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
5024
5025 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
5026 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
5027 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
5028 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
5029 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
5030 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
5031 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
5032 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
5033 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
5034 established soon.</p>
5035
5036 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
5037 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
5038 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
5039 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
5040 for their packages.</p>
5041
5042       </div>
5043       <div class="tags">
5044
5045
5046         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>.
5047
5048
5049       </div>
5050     </div>
5051     <div class="padding"></div>
5052
5053     <div class="entry">
5054       <div class="title">
5055         <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>
5056       </div>
5057       <div class="date">
5058         23rd January 2011
5059       </div>
5060       <div class="body">
5061         <p>In the
5062 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
5063 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
5064 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
5065 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
5066 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
5067 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
5068 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
5069 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
5070 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
5071 one of my machines like this:</p>
5072
5073 <pre>
5074 loaded modules:
5075 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
5076 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
5077 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
5078 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
5079 10de:03ec pata_amd
5080 10de:03f6 sata_nv
5081 1022:1103 k8temp
5082 109e:036e bttv
5083 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
5084 11ab:4364 sky2
5085 </pre>
5086
5087 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
5088 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
5089
5090 <pre>
5091 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
5092     echo loaded pci modules:
5093     (
5094         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
5095         for address in * ; do
5096             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5097                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5098                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5099                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5100                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
5101                     echo "$id $module"
5102                 fi
5103             fi
5104         done
5105     )
5106     echo
5107 fi
5108 </pre>
5109
5110 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
5111 mappings:</p>
5112
5113 <pre>
5114 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
5115     echo loaded usb modules:
5116     (
5117         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
5118         for address in * ; do
5119             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
5120                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
5121                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
5122                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
5123                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
5124                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
5125                         echo "$id $module"
5126                     fi
5127                 fi
5128             fi
5129         done
5130     )
5131     echo
5132 fi
5133 </pre>
5134
5135 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
5136 well.</p>
5137
5138       </div>
5139       <div class="tags">
5140
5141
5142         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>.
5143
5144
5145       </div>
5146     </div>
5147     <div class="padding"></div>
5148
5149     <div class="entry">
5150       <div class="title">
5151         <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>
5152       </div>
5153       <div class="date">
5154         22nd December 2010
5155       </div>
5156       <div class="body">
5157         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
5158 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
5159 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
5160 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
5161 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
5162 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
5163 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
5164 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
5165 university.</p>
5166
5167 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
5168 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
5169 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
5170 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
5171 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
5172 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
5173 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
5174 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
5175
5176 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
5177 I perform on a new model.</p>
5178
5179 <ul>
5180
5181 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
5182 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
5183 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
5184
5185 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
5186 installation, X.org is working.</li>
5187
5188 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
5189 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
5190 reported by the program.</li>
5191
5192 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
5193 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
5194 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
5195 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
5196 normally test this by playing
5197 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
5198 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
5199
5200 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
5201 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5202
5203 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
5204 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
5205
5206 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
5207 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
5208
5209 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
5210 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
5211 few.</li>
5212
5213 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
5214 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
5215 notice this.</li>
5216
5217 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
5218 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
5219 resume.</li>
5220
5221 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
5222 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
5223 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
5224 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
5225 not.</li>
5226
5227 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
5228 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
5229 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
5230 existence.</li>
5231
5232 </ul>
5233
5234 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
5235 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
5236 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
5237 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
5238 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
5239 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
5240 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
5241 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
5242
5243       </div>
5244       <div class="tags">
5245
5246
5247         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>.
5248
5249
5250       </div>
5251     </div>
5252     <div class="padding"></div>
5253
5254     <div class="entry">
5255       <div class="title">
5256         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
5257       </div>
5258       <div class="date">
5259         11th December 2010
5260       </div>
5261       <div class="body">
5262         <p>As I continue to explore
5263 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
5264 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
5265 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
5266
5267 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
5268 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
5269 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
5270 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
5271 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
5272 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
5273 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
5274 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
5275 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
5276 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
5277 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
5278 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
5279 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
5280 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
5281 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
5282 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
5283 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
5284 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
5285 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
5286 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
5287
5288 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
5289 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
5290 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
5291 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
5292 If the Skolelinux foundation
5293 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
5294 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
5295 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
5296 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
5297 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
5298 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
5299 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
5300 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
5301
5302 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
5303 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
5304 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
5305 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
5306 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
5307 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
5308 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
5309 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
5310 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
5311 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
5312 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
5313 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
5314 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
5315 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
5316 currencies.</p>
5317
5318 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
5319 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
5320 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
5321 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
5322 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
5323 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
5324 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
5325 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
5326 BitCoins.  Check out
5327 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
5328 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
5329 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
5330 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
5331 yet.</p>
5332
5333 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
5334 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
5335 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
5336 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
5337 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
5338
5339       </div>
5340       <div class="tags">
5341
5342
5343         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>.
5344
5345
5346       </div>
5347     </div>
5348     <div class="padding"></div>
5349
5350     <div class="entry">
5351       <div class="title">
5352         <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>
5353       </div>
5354       <div class="date">
5355         10th December 2010
5356       </div>
5357       <div class="body">
5358         <p>With this weeks lawless
5359 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
5360 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
5361 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
5362 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
5363 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
5364 A blog post from
5365 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
5366 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
5367 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
5368 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
5369 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
5370 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
5371 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
5372
5373 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
5374 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
5375 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
5376 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
5377 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
5378 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
5379 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
5380 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
5381 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
5382 Debian</a> soon.</p>
5383
5384 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
5385 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
5386 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
5387 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
5388 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
5389 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
5390 you can even get
5391 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
5392 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
5393 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
5394 on the current exchange rates.</p>
5395
5396 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
5397 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
5398 donations to the address
5399 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
5400
5401       </div>
5402       <div class="tags">
5403
5404
5405         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>.
5406
5407
5408       </div>
5409     </div>
5410     <div class="padding"></div>
5411
5412     <div class="entry">
5413       <div class="title">
5414         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
5415       </div>
5416       <div class="date">
5417         27th November 2010
5418       </div>
5419       <div class="body">
5420         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
5421 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
5422 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
5423 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
5424 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
5425 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
5426 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
5427 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
5428
5429 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
5430 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
5431 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
5432 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
5433 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
5434 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
5435 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
5436 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
5437 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
5438 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
5439 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
5440
5441 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
5442 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
5443 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
5444 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
5445 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
5446 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
5447 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
5448 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
5449 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
5450 what is going on.</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/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>.
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/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>
5466       </div>
5467       <div class="date">
5468         22nd November 2010
5469       </div>
5470       <div class="body">
5471         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
5472 upgrade testing of the
5473 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5474 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
5475 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
5476 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
5477
5478 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5479
5480 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5481
5482 <blockquote><p>
5483   apache2.2-bin
5484   aptdaemon
5485   baobab
5486   binfmt-support
5487   browser-plugin-gnash
5488   cheese-common
5489   cli-common
5490   cups-pk-helper
5491   dmz-cursor-theme
5492   empathy
5493   empathy-common
5494   freedesktop-sound-theme
5495   freeglut3
5496   gconf-defaults-service
5497   gdm-themes
5498   gedit-plugins
5499   geoclue
5500   geoclue-hostip
5501   geoclue-localnet
5502   geoclue-manual
5503   geoclue-yahoo
5504   gnash
5505   gnash-common
5506   gnome
5507   gnome-backgrounds
5508   gnome-cards-data
5509   gnome-codec-install
5510   gnome-core
5511   gnome-desktop-environment
5512   gnome-disk-utility
5513   gnome-screenshot
5514   gnome-search-tool
5515   gnome-session-canberra
5516   gnome-system-log
5517   gnome-themes-extras
5518   gnome-themes-more
5519   gnome-user-share
5520   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5521   gstreamer0.10-tools
5522   gtk2-engines
5523   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5524   gtk2-engines-smooth
5525   hamster-applet
5526   libapache2-mod-dnssd
5527   libapr1
5528   libaprutil1
5529   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
5530   libaprutil1-ldap
5531   libart2.0-cil
5532   libboost-date-time1.42.0
5533   libboost-python1.42.0
5534   libboost-thread1.42.0
5535   libchamplain-0.4-0
5536   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
5537   libcheese-gtk18
5538   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5539   libcryptui0
5540   libdiscid0
5541   libelf1
5542   libepc-1.0-2
5543   libepc-common
5544   libepc-ui-1.0-2
5545   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5546   libfreerdp0
5547   libgconf2.0-cil
5548   libgdata-common
5549   libgdata7
5550   libgdu-gtk0
5551   libgee2
5552   libgeoclue0
5553   libgexiv2-0
5554   libgif4
5555   libglade2.0-cil
5556   libglib2.0-cil
5557   libgmime2.4-cil
5558   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5559   libgnome2.24-cil
5560   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
5561   libgpod-common
5562   libgpod4
5563   libgtk2.0-cil
5564   libgtkglext1
5565   libgtksourceview2.0-common
5566   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5567   libmono-addins0.2-cil
5568   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
5569   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5570   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
5571   libmono-posix2.0-cil
5572   libmono-security2.0-cil
5573   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5574   libmono-system2.0-cil
5575   libmtp8
5576   libmusicbrainz3-6
5577   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
5578   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
5579   libopal3.6.8
5580   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
5581   libpt2.6.7
5582   libpython2.6
5583   librpm1
5584   librpmio1
5585   libsdl1.2debian
5586   libsrtp0
5587   libssh-4
5588   libtelepathy-farsight0
5589   libtelepathy-glib0
5590   libtidy-0.99-0
5591   media-player-info
5592   mesa-utils
5593   mono-2.0-gac
5594   mono-gac
5595   mono-runtime
5596   nautilus-sendto
5597   nautilus-sendto-empathy
5598   p7zip-full
5599   pkg-config
5600   python-aptdaemon
5601   python-aptdaemon-gtk
5602   python-axiom
5603   python-beautifulsoup
5604   python-bugbuddy
5605   python-clientform
5606   python-coherence
5607   python-configobj
5608   python-crypto
5609   python-cupshelpers
5610   python-elementtree
5611   python-epsilon
5612   python-evolution
5613   python-feedparser
5614   python-gdata
5615   python-gdbm
5616   python-gst0.10
5617   python-gtkglext1
5618   python-gtksourceview2
5619   python-httplib2
5620   python-louie
5621   python-mako
5622   python-markupsafe
5623   python-mechanize
5624   python-nevow
5625   python-notify
5626   python-opengl
5627   python-openssl
5628   python-pam
5629   python-pkg-resources
5630   python-pyasn1
5631   python-pysqlite2
5632   python-rdflib
5633   python-serial
5634   python-tagpy
5635   python-twisted-bin
5636   python-twisted-conch
5637   python-twisted-core
5638   python-twisted-web
5639   python-utidylib
5640   python-webkit
5641   python-xdg
5642   python-zope.interface
5643   remmina
5644   remmina-plugin-data
5645   remmina-plugin-rdp
5646   remmina-plugin-vnc
5647   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5648   rhythmbox-plugins
5649   rpm-common
5650   rpm2cpio
5651   seahorse-plugins
5652   shotwell
5653   software-center
5654   system-config-printer-udev
5655   telepathy-gabble
5656   telepathy-mission-control-5
5657   telepathy-salut
5658   tomboy
5659   totem
5660   totem-coherence
5661   totem-mozilla
5662   totem-plugins
5663   transmission-common
5664   xdg-user-dirs
5665   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
5666   xserver-xephyr
5667 </p></blockquote>
5668
5669 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5670
5671 <blockquote><p>
5672   cheese
5673   ekiga
5674   eog
5675   epiphany-extensions
5676   evolution-exchange
5677   fast-user-switch-applet
5678   file-roller
5679   gcalctool
5680   gconf-editor
5681   gdm
5682   gedit
5683   gedit-common
5684   gnome-games
5685   gnome-games-data
5686   gnome-nettool
5687   gnome-system-tools
5688   gnome-themes
5689   gnuchess
5690   gucharmap
5691   guile-1.8-libs
5692   libavahi-ui0
5693   libdmx1
5694   libgalago3
5695   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5696   libgtksourceview2.0-0
5697   liblircclient0
5698   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
5699   libspeexdsp1
5700   libsvga1
5701   rhythmbox
5702   seahorse
5703   sound-juicer
5704   system-config-printer
5705   totem-common
5706   transmission-gtk
5707   vinagre
5708   vino
5709 </p></blockquote>
5710
5711 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5712
5713 <blockquote><p>
5714   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5715 </p></blockquote>
5716
5717 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5718
5719 <blockquote><p>
5720 [nothing]
5721 </p></blockquote>
5722
5723 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5724
5725 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5726
5727 <blockquote><p>
5728   ksmserver
5729 </p></blockquote>
5730
5731 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5732
5733 <blockquote><p>
5734   kwin
5735   network-manager-kde
5736 </p></blockquote>
5737
5738 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5739
5740 <blockquote><p>
5741   arts
5742   dolphin
5743   freespacenotifier
5744   google-gadgets-gst
5745   google-gadgets-xul
5746   kappfinder
5747   kcalc
5748   kcharselect
5749   kde-core
5750   kde-plasma-desktop
5751   kde-standard
5752   kde-window-manager
5753   kdeartwork
5754   kdeartwork-emoticons
5755   kdeartwork-style
5756   kdeartwork-theme-icon
5757   kdebase
5758   kdebase-apps
5759   kdebase-workspace
5760   kdebase-workspace-bin
5761   kdebase-workspace-data
5762   kdeeject
5763   kdelibs
5764   kdeplasma-addons
5765   kdeutils
5766   kdewallpapers
5767   kdf
5768   kfloppy
5769   kgpg
5770   khelpcenter4
5771   kinfocenter
5772   konq-plugins-l10n
5773   konqueror-nsplugins
5774   kscreensaver
5775   kscreensaver-xsavers
5776   ktimer
5777   kwrite
5778   libgle3
5779   libkde4-ruby1.8
5780   libkonq5
5781   libkonq5-templates
5782   libnetpbm10
5783   libplasma-ruby
5784   libplasma-ruby1.8
5785   libqt4-ruby1.8
5786   marble-data
5787   marble-plugins
5788   netpbm
5789   nuvola-icon-theme
5790   plasma-dataengines-workspace
5791   plasma-desktop
5792   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
5793   plasma-runners-addons
5794   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
5795   plasma-scriptengine-python
5796   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
5797   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
5798   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
5799   plasma-scriptengines
5800   plasma-wallpapers-addons
5801   plasma-widget-folderview
5802   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5803   ruby
5804   sweeper
5805   update-notifier-kde
5806   xscreensaver-data-extra
5807   xscreensaver-gl
5808   xscreensaver-gl-extra
5809   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5810 </p></blockquote>
5811
5812 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5813
5814 <blockquote><p>
5815   ark
5816   google-gadgets-common
5817   google-gadgets-qt
5818   htdig
5819   kate
5820   kdebase-bin
5821   kdebase-data
5822   kdepasswd
5823   kfind
5824   klipper
5825   konq-plugins
5826   konqueror
5827   ksysguard
5828   ksysguardd
5829   libarchive1
5830   libcln6
5831   libeet1
5832   libeina-svn-06
5833   libggadget-1.0-0b
5834   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
5835   libgps19
5836   libkdecorations4
5837   libkephal4
5838   libkonq4
5839   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
5840   libkscreensaver5
5841   libksgrd4
5842   libksignalplotter4
5843   libkunitconversion4
5844   libkwineffects1a
5845   libmarblewidget4
5846   libntrack-qt4-1
5847   libntrack0
5848   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
5849   libplasmaclock4a
5850   libplasmagenericshell4
5851   libprocesscore4a
5852   libprocessui4a
5853   libqalculate5
5854   libqedje0a
5855   libqtruby4shared2
5856   libqzion0a
5857   libruby1.8
5858   libscim8c2a
5859   libsmokekdecore4-3
5860   libsmokekdeui4-3
5861   libsmokekfile3
5862   libsmokekhtml3
5863   libsmokekio3
5864   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
5865   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
5866   libsmokekparts3
5867   libsmokektexteditor3
5868   libsmokekutils3
5869   libsmokenepomuk3
5870   libsmokephonon3
5871   libsmokeplasma3
5872   libsmokeqtcore4-3
5873   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
5874   libsmokeqtgui4-3
5875   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
5876   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
5877   libsmokeqtscript4-3
5878   libsmokeqtsql4-3
5879   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
5880   libsmokeqttest4-3
5881   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
5882   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
5883   libsmokeqtxml4-3
5884   libsmokesolid3
5885   libsmokesoprano3
5886   libtaskmanager4a
5887   libtidy-0.99-0
5888   libweather-ion4a
5889   libxklavier16
5890   libxxf86misc1
5891   okteta
5892   oxygencursors
5893   plasma-dataengines-addons
5894   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
5895   plasma-widget-lancelot
5896   plasma-widgets-addons
5897   plasma-widgets-workspace
5898   polkit-kde-1
5899   ruby1.8
5900   systemsettings
5901   update-notifier-common
5902 </p></blockquote>
5903
5904 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
5905 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
5906 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
5907 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
5908
5909       </div>
5910       <div class="tags">
5911
5912
5913         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>.
5914
5915
5916       </div>
5917     </div>
5918     <div class="padding"></div>
5919
5920     <div class="entry">
5921       <div class="title">
5922         <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>
5923       </div>
5924       <div class="date">
5925         22nd November 2010
5926       </div>
5927       <div class="body">
5928         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
5929 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
5930 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
5931 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
5932 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
5933 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
5934 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
5935 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
5936 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
5937
5938 <p>I found
5939 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
5940 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
5941 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
5942 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
5943 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
5944 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
5945
5946 <pre>
5947 #!/bin/sh
5948
5949 # Based on
5950 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
5951
5952 set -e
5953 set -x
5954
5955 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
5956     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
5957     exit 1
5958 else
5959     host="$1"
5960 fi
5961
5962 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
5963     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
5964     exit 1
5965 fi
5966
5967 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
5968 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5969 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5970 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
5971
5972 img=$host.img
5973 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
5974 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
5975
5976 parted $img mklabel msdos
5977 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
5978 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
5979 parted $img set 1 boot on
5980
5981 modprobe dm-mod
5982 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
5983 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
5984
5985 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
5986 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
5987 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
5988
5989 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
5990 losetup -d /dev/loop0
5991 </pre>
5992
5993 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
5994 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
5995
5996 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
5997 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
5998 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
5999 seem to work just fine.</p>
6000
6001       </div>
6002       <div class="tags">
6003
6004
6005         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>.
6006
6007
6008       </div>
6009     </div>
6010     <div class="padding"></div>
6011
6012     <div class="entry">
6013       <div class="title">
6014         <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>
6015       </div>
6016       <div class="date">
6017         20th November 2010
6018       </div>
6019       <div class="body">
6020         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
6021 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6022 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
6023 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
6024
6025 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
6026 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
6027 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
6028
6029 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6030
6031 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6032
6033 <blockquote><p>
6034   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
6035   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
6036   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
6037   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
6038   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
6039   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
6040   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
6041   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
6042   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
6043   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
6044   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6045   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6046   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
6047   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
6048   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
6049   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
6050   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6051   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
6052   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6053   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
6054   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
6055   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6056   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
6057   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
6058   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
6059   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6060   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6061   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
6062   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6063   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
6064   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
6065   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6066   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
6067   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
6068   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
6069   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
6070   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
6071   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
6072   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
6073   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
6074   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
6075   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
6076   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
6077   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
6078   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
6079   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
6080   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
6081   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
6082   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
6083   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
6084   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
6085   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
6086   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6087   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
6088   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
6089   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
6090   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
6091   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
6092   zip
6093 </p></blockquote>
6094
6095 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
6096
6097 <blockquote><p>
6098   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
6099   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
6100   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
6101   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
6102   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
6103   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
6104   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
6105   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
6106   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
6107   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
6108   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
6109   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6110   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6111   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6112   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6113   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
6114   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6115   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
6116   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
6117   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
6118   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
6119   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
6120   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6121   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
6122   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
6123   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
6124   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
6125   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
6126   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
6127 </p></blockquote>
6128
6129 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6130
6131 <blockquote><p>
6132   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6133 </p></blockquote>
6134
6135 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6136
6137 <blockquote><p>
6138 [nothing]
6139 </p></blockquote>
6140
6141 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6142
6143 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6144
6145 <blockquote><p>
6146   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
6147   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
6148   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
6149   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
6150   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
6151   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
6152   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
6153   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
6154   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
6155   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
6156   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
6157   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
6158   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
6159   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
6160   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
6161   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
6162   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
6163   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
6164   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
6165   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
6166   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
6167   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
6168   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
6169   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
6170   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
6171   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
6172   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
6173   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
6174   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
6175   ttf-sazanami-gothic
6176 </p></blockquote>
6177
6178 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6179
6180 <blockquote><p>
6181   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
6182   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
6183   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
6184   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
6185   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
6186   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
6187   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
6188   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
6189   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
6190   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
6191   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
6192   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
6193   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
6194   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
6195   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
6196   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
6197   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
6198   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
6199   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
6200   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
6201   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
6202   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
6203   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
6204   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
6205   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
6206   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
6207   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
6208   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
6209   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
6210   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
6211   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
6212   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
6213   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
6214 </p></blockquote>
6215
6216 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6217
6218 <blockquote><p>
6219   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
6220   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
6221   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
6222   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
6223   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6224   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
6225   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6226 </p></blockquote>
6227
6228 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6229
6230 <blockquote><p>
6231   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
6232 </p></blockquote>
6233
6234       </div>
6235       <div class="tags">
6236
6237
6238         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>.
6239
6240
6241       </div>
6242     </div>
6243     <div class="padding"></div>
6244
6245     <div class="entry">
6246       <div class="title">
6247         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
6248       </div>
6249       <div class="date">
6250         20th November 2010
6251       </div>
6252       <div class="body">
6253         <p>Answering
6254 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
6255 call from the Gnash project</a> for
6256 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
6257 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
6258 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
6259 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
6260 releases out more often.</p>
6261
6262 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
6263 I have considered setting up a <a
6264 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
6265 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
6266 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
6267 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
6268 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
6269 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
6270 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
6271 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
6272 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
6273 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
6274 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
6275 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
6276
6277       </div>
6278       <div class="tags">
6279
6280
6281         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>.
6282
6283
6284       </div>
6285     </div>
6286     <div class="padding"></div>
6287
6288     <div class="entry">
6289       <div class="title">
6290         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
6291       </div>
6292       <div class="date">
6293          9th November 2010
6294       </div>
6295       <div class="body">
6296         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
6297
6298 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
6299 3D linked in from
6300 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
6301 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
6302
6303       </div>
6304       <div class="tags">
6305
6306
6307         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>.
6308
6309
6310       </div>
6311     </div>
6312     <div class="padding"></div>
6313
6314     <div class="entry">
6315       <div class="title">
6316         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
6317       </div>
6318       <div class="date">
6319         24th October 2010
6320       </div>
6321       <div class="body">
6322         <p>Some updates.</p>
6323
6324 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
6325 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
6326 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
6327 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
6328 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
6329 :)</p>
6330
6331 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
6332 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
6333 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
6334 It is called
6335 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
6336 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
6337 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
6338 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
6339 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
6340 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
6341
6342 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
6343 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
6344 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
6345 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
6346 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
6347 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
6348 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
6349 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
6350 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
6351 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
6352
6353       </div>
6354       <div class="tags">
6355
6356
6357         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>.
6358
6359
6360       </div>
6361     </div>
6362     <div class="padding"></div>
6363
6364     <div class="entry">
6365       <div class="title">
6366         <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>
6367       </div>
6368       <div class="date">
6369          4th September 2010
6370       </div>
6371       <div class="body">
6372         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
6373 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
6374 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
6375 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
6376 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
6377 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
6378 installed.</p>
6379
6380 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
6381 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
6382 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
6383 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
6384 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6385 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
6386 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
6387 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
6388 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
6389
6390 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
6391 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
6392 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
6393 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
6394 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
6395 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
6396 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
6397 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
6398 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
6399 pages they want to visit.</p>
6400
6401 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
6402 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
6403 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
6404 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
6405 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
6406 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
6407 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
6408 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
6409 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
6410 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
6411 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
6412
6413       </div>
6414       <div class="tags">
6415
6416
6417         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>.
6418
6419
6420       </div>
6421     </div>
6422     <div class="padding"></div>
6423
6424     <div class="entry">
6425       <div class="title">
6426         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
6427       </div>
6428       <div class="date">
6429         27th July 2010
6430       </div>
6431       <div class="body">
6432         <p>I discovered this while doing
6433 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
6434 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
6435 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
6436 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
6437 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
6438
6439 <p>An example is from todays
6440 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
6441 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
6442 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
6443 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
6444 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
6445 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
6446 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
6447
6448 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
6449
6450 <blockquote><pre>
6451 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
6452  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
6453   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
6454 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
6455  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
6456 </pre></blockquote>
6457
6458 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
6459 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
6460 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
6461 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
6462 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
6463 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
6464 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
6465 of dependency loops.</p>
6466
6467 <p>Thanks to
6468 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
6469 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
6470 dependencies
6471 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
6472 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
6473
6474 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
6475 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
6476 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
6477 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
6478 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
6479 it.</p>
6480
6481       </div>
6482       <div class="tags">
6483
6484
6485         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>.
6486
6487
6488       </div>
6489     </div>
6490     <div class="padding"></div>
6491
6492     <div class="entry">
6493       <div class="title">
6494         <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>
6495       </div>
6496       <div class="date">
6497         17th July 2010
6498       </div>
6499       <div class="body">
6500         <p>This is a
6501 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
6502 on my
6503 <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
6504 work</a> on
6505 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
6506 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
6507
6508 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
6509 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
6510 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
6511 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
6512
6513 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
6514 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
6515 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
6516
6517 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
6518
6519 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
6520 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
6521 the web.
6522
6523 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
6524 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
6525 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
6526 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
6527 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
6528 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
6529
6530 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
6531 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
6532 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
6533 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
6534 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
6535 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
6536 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
6537 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
6538 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
6539 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
6540 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
6541 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
6542 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
6543 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
6544 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
6545 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
6546
6547 <blockquote><pre>
6548 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6549   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6550   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
6551   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
6552   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
6553   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
6554   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
6555
6556 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6557   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6558   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
6559   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
6560   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
6561   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
6562 </pre></blockquote>
6563
6564 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
6565 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
6566 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
6567 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6568 also exist.</p>
6569
6570 <blockquote><pre>
6571 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6572 objectclass: top
6573 objectclass: dnsdomain
6574 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6575 dc: tjener
6576 arecord: 10.0.2.2
6577 associateddomain: tjener.intern
6578
6579 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6580 objectclass: top
6581 objectclass: dnsdomain2
6582 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6583 dc: 2
6584 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
6585 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
6586 </pre></blockquote>
6587
6588 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
6589 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
6590 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
6591 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
6592 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
6593 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
6594 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
6595 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
6596 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
6597 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
6598 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
6599 instead.</p>
6600
6601 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
6602 like this:</p>
6603
6604 <blockquote><pre>
6605 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
6606   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
6607   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
6608   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
6609   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
6610   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
6611
6612 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
6613   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
6614 </pre></blockquote>
6615
6616 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
6617 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
6618 reverse lookups.</p>
6619
6620 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
6621 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
6622 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
6623 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
6624
6625 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
6626 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
6627 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
6628
6629 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
6630 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
6631 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
6632 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
6633 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
6634
6635 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
6636 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
6637 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
6638 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
6639 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
6640
6641 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
6642 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
6643 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
6644 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
6645 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
6646 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
6647
6648 <blockquote><pre>
6649 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
6650     SUP top
6651     AUXILIARY
6652     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
6653           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
6654           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
6655           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
6656           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
6657     ))
6658 </pre></blockquote>
6659
6660 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
6661 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
6662 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
6663 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
6664 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
6665 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
6666
6667 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
6668
6669 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
6670 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
6671 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
6672 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
6673 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
6674
6675 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
6676 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
6677 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
6678 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
6679
6680 <blockquote><pre>
6681 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
6682 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
6683 </pre></blockquote>
6684
6685 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
6686 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
6687 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
6688 search result is this entry:</p>
6689
6690 <blockquote><pre>
6691 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6692 cn: dhcp
6693 objectClass: top
6694 objectClass: dhcpServer
6695 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6696 </pre></blockquote>
6697
6698 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
6699 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
6700 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
6701 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
6702 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
6703 The search result is this entry:</p>
6704
6705 <blockquote><pre>
6706 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6707 cn: DHCP Config
6708 objectClass: top
6709 objectClass: dhcpService
6710 objectClass: dhcpOptions
6711 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6712 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
6713 dhcpStatements: authoritative
6714 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
6715 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
6716 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
6717 </pre></blockquote>
6718
6719 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
6720 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
6721 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
6722 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
6723 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
6724 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
6725 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
6726 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
6727 related computer objects.</p>
6728
6729 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
6730 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
6731 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
6732 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
6733 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
6734 like:</p>
6735
6736 <blockquote><pre>
6737 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6738 cn: hostname
6739 objectClass: top
6740 objectClass: dhcpHost
6741 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6742 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
6743 </pre></blockquote>
6744
6745 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
6746 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
6747 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
6748 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
6749 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
6750 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
6751 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
6752 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
6753 structural object class.
6754
6755 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
6756
6757 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
6758 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
6759 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
6760 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
6761 in the configuration.</p>
6762
6763 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
6764 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
6765 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
6766 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
6767 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
6768 structure.</p>
6769
6770 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
6771 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
6772
6773 <blockquote><pre>
6774 ou=services
6775   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
6776     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
6777     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6778       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6779         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6780     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6781       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6782         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6783     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
6784       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
6785 </pre></blockquote>
6786
6787 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
6788 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
6789 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
6790 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
6791
6792 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
6793 like this:</p>
6794
6795 <blockquote><pre>
6796 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6797 dc: hostname
6798 objectClass: top
6799 objectClass: dhcpHost
6800 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6801 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
6802 associateddomain: hostname.intern
6803 arecord: 10.11.12.13
6804 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6805 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
6806 </pre></blockquote>
6807
6808 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
6809 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
6810 auxiliary object class.</p>
6811
6812       </div>
6813       <div class="tags">
6814
6815
6816         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>.
6817
6818
6819       </div>
6820     </div>
6821     <div class="padding"></div>
6822
6823     <div class="entry">
6824       <div class="title">
6825         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
6826       </div>
6827       <div class="date">
6828         14th July 2010
6829       </div>
6830       <div class="body">
6831         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
6832 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
6833 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
6834 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
6835 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
6836
6837 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
6838 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
6839
6840 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
6841 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
6842 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
6843 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
6844 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
6845 to a slave DNS server.</p>
6846
6847 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
6848 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
6849 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
6850 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
6851 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
6852 seem to work.</p>
6853
6854 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
6855 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
6856 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
6857 this:</p>
6858
6859 <blockquote><pre>
6860   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6861   cn: hostname
6862   objectClass: dhcphost
6863   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6864   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
6865   associateddomain: hostname.intern
6866   arecord: 10.11.12.13
6867   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6868   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
6869   ldapconfigsound: Y
6870 </pre></blockquote>
6871
6872 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
6873 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
6874 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
6875 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
6876
6877 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
6878 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
6879 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
6880 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
6881 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
6882 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
6883 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
6884 might be a good place to put it.</p>
6885
6886 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6887 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6888
6889       </div>
6890       <div class="tags">
6891
6892
6893         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>.
6894
6895
6896       </div>
6897     </div>
6898     <div class="padding"></div>
6899
6900     <div class="entry">
6901       <div class="title">
6902         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
6903       </div>
6904       <div class="date">
6905         11th July 2010
6906       </div>
6907       <div class="body">
6908         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
6909 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
6910 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
6911 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
6912
6913 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
6914 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
6915 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
6916 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
6917 LTSP clients.</p>
6918
6919 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
6920 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
6921 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
6922
6923 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
6924 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
6925 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
6926
6927 <blockquote><pre>
6928 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
6929 #
6930 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
6931 #
6932 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
6933 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
6934 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
6935 #
6936 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
6937 # existence of attribute names.
6938 #
6939 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
6940 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
6941 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
6942 #
6943 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
6944 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
6945 #
6946 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
6947 #     SUP top
6948 #     AUXILIARY
6949 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
6950
6951 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
6952 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
6953     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
6954     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
6955         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
6956         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
6957             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
6958             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
6959             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
6960             # bass value on to clients
6961             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
6962         done
6963     done
6964 fi
6965 </pre></blockquote>
6966
6967 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
6968 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
6969 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
6970 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
6971 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
6972
6973 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6974 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6975
6976 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
6977 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
6978 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
6979 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
6980 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
6981 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
6982
6983       </div>
6984       <div class="tags">
6985
6986
6987         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>.
6988
6989
6990       </div>
6991     </div>
6992     <div class="padding"></div>
6993
6994     <div class="entry">
6995       <div class="title">
6996         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6997       </div>
6998       <div class="date">
6999          9th July 2010
7000       </div>
7001       <div class="body">
7002         <p>Since
7003 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
7004 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
7005 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
7006 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
7007 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
7008 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
7009 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
7010 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
7011 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
7012 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
7013 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
7014 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
7015 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
7016
7017       </div>
7018       <div class="tags">
7019
7020
7021         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>.
7022
7023
7024       </div>
7025     </div>
7026     <div class="padding"></div>
7027
7028     <div class="entry">
7029       <div class="title">
7030         <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>
7031       </div>
7032       <div class="date">
7033          3rd July 2010
7034       </div>
7035       <div class="body">
7036         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
7037 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
7038 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
7039 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
7040 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
7041 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
7042 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
7043 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
7044
7045 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
7046 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
7047 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
7048 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
7049 publish the difference.</p>
7050
7051 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7052
7053 <blockquote><p>
7054   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7055   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
7056   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
7057   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7058   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
7059   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7060   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
7061   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
7062 </p></blockquote>
7063
7064 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7065
7066 <blockquote><p>
7067   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
7068   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
7069   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
7070   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
7071   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
7072   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
7073   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7074   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7075   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7076   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7077   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
7078   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
7079   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
7080   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
7081   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
7082   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7083   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
7084   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
7085   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
7086   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
7087 </p></blockquote>
7088
7089 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7090
7091 <blockquote><p>
7092   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
7093   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
7094   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7095   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7096   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
7097   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
7098   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
7099   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7100   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7101   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7102   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7103   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
7104   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
7105   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
7106   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
7107   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
7108   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
7109   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
7110   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
7111   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
7112   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
7113 </p></blockquote>
7114
7115 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7116
7117 <blockquote><p>
7118   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
7119   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
7120   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
7121 </p></blockquote>
7122
7123 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
7124 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
7125 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
7126 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
7127 the difference somewhat.
7128
7129       </div>
7130       <div class="tags">
7131
7132
7133         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>.
7134
7135
7136       </div>
7137     </div>
7138     <div class="padding"></div>
7139
7140     <div class="entry">
7141       <div class="title">
7142         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
7143       </div>
7144       <div class="date">
7145         28th June 2010
7146       </div>
7147       <div class="body">
7148         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
7149 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
7150 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
7151 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
7152 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
7153 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
7154 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
7155 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
7156 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
7157 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
7158
7159 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
7160 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
7161 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
7162 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
7163 released.</p>
7164
7165 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
7166 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
7167 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
7168 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
7169
7170 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
7171 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7172
7173 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
7174 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
7175 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
7176 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
7177 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
7178
7179       </div>
7180       <div class="tags">
7181
7182
7183         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>.
7184
7185
7186       </div>
7187     </div>
7188     <div class="padding"></div>
7189
7190     <div class="entry">
7191       <div class="title">
7192         <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>
7193       </div>
7194       <div class="date">
7195         24th June 2010
7196       </div>
7197       <div class="body">
7198         <p>A while back, I
7199 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
7200 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
7201 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
7202 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
7203
7204 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
7205 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
7206 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
7207 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
7208
7209 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
7210 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
7211 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
7212 Debian Edu.</p>
7213
7214 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
7215 the
7216 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
7217 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
7218 available today from IETF.</p>
7219
7220 <pre>
7221 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
7222 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
7223 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
7224  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
7225         NAME 'dhcpHost'
7226         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
7227 -       SUP top
7228 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
7229         MUST cn
7230         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
7231         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
7232 </pre>
7233
7234 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
7235 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
7236 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
7237
7238 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7239 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7240
7241       </div>
7242       <div class="tags">
7243
7244
7245         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>.
7246
7247
7248       </div>
7249     </div>
7250     <div class="padding"></div>
7251
7252     <div class="entry">
7253       <div class="title">
7254         <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>
7255       </div>
7256       <div class="date">
7257         16th June 2010
7258       </div>
7259       <div class="body">
7260         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
7261 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
7262 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
7263 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
7264 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
7265 this:
7266
7267 <blockquote><pre>
7268 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7269 tasksel --new-install
7270 </pre></blockquote>
7271
7272 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
7273 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
7274 any output what so ever.
7275
7276 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
7277 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
7278 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
7279 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
7280 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
7281 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
7282 code like this:
7283
7284 <blockquote><pre>
7285 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7286 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
7287 $cmd
7288 </pre></blockquote>
7289
7290 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
7291 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
7292 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
7293 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
7294 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
7295 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
7296 installation.</p>
7297
7298 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
7299 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
7300 like this.</p>
7301
7302       </div>
7303       <div class="tags">
7304
7305
7306         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>.
7307
7308
7309       </div>
7310     </div>
7311     <div class="padding"></div>
7312
7313     <div class="entry">
7314       <div class="title">
7315         <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>
7316       </div>
7317       <div class="date">
7318         13th June 2010
7319       </div>
7320       <div class="body">
7321         <p>My
7322 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
7323 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
7324 finally made the upgrade logs available from
7325 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
7326 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
7327 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
7328 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
7329
7330 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
7331 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
7332 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
7333 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
7334 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
7335 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
7336 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
7337 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
7338
7339 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
7340 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
7341 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
7342 too surprising.</p>
7343
7344 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
7345 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
7346 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
7347 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
7348 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
7349 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
7350 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
7351 continue.</p>
7352
7353 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
7354 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
7355   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
7356   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
7357   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
7358   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
7359   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
7360   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7361   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7362   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7363   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7364   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7365   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7366   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7367   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7368   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7369   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7370   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7371   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7372   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7373   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7374   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7375   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7376   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7377   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7378   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7379   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7380   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7381   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
7382   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
7383
7384 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
7385
7386 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
7387   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
7388   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
7389   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
7390   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7391   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
7392   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
7393   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
7394   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
7395   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
7396   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7397   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
7398   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7399   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
7400   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
7401   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
7402   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
7403   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
7404   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
7405   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
7406   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
7407   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
7408   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
7409   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
7410   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7411   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
7412   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
7413   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
7414   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
7415   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7416   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7417   zip</p>
7418
7419 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
7420
7421 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
7422   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
7423   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
7424   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
7425   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
7426   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
7427   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7428   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7429   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7430   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7431   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7432   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7433   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7434   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7435   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7436   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7437   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7438   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7439   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7440   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7441   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7442   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7443   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7444   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7445   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7446   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7447   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7448   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
7449
7450 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
7451 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
7452   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7453   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
7454   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
7455   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7456   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
7457   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
7458   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7459   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
7460   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
7461   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
7462   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
7463   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
7464   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
7465   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
7466   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
7467   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7468   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7469   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7470   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
7471   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7472   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
7473   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
7474   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7475   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7476   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
7477   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
7478   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
7479   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
7480   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
7481   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
7482   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
7483   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
7484   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
7485   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7486   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7487   xulrunner-1.9</p>
7488
7489
7490       </div>
7491       <div class="tags">
7492
7493
7494         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>.
7495
7496
7497       </div>
7498     </div>
7499     <div class="padding"></div>
7500
7501     <div class="entry">
7502       <div class="title">
7503         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
7504       </div>
7505       <div class="date">
7506         11th June 2010
7507       </div>
7508       <div class="body">
7509         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
7510 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
7511 have been discovered and reported in the process
7512 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
7513 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
7514 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
7515 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
7516 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
7517
7518 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
7519 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
7520 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
7521 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
7522 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
7523 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
7524
7525 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
7526 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
7527 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7528 is created.  The bug report
7529 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
7530 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
7531 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
7532 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
7533 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
7534 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
7535 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
7536 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
7537 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
7538 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
7539 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
7540 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
7541 Debian Squeeze.</p>
7542
7543 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
7544 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
7545 trick:</p>
7546
7547 <blockquote><pre>
7548 #!/bin/sh
7549 set -ex
7550
7551 if [ "$1" ] ; then
7552     desktop=$1
7553 else
7554     desktop=gnome
7555 fi
7556
7557 from=lenny
7558 to=squeeze
7559
7560 exec &lt; /dev/null
7561 unset LANG
7562 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
7563 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
7564 fuser -mv .
7565 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
7566 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7567 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
7568 #!/bin/sh
7569 exit 101
7570 EOF
7571 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
7572 exit_cleanup() {
7573     umount $tmpdir/proc
7574 }
7575 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
7576 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
7577 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
7578
7579 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
7580
7581 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
7582 # to return the correct answers.
7583 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
7584     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
7585
7586 # Include the desktop and laptop task
7587 for test in desktop laptop ; do
7588     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
7589 #!/bin/sh
7590 exit 2
7591 EOF
7592     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
7593 done
7594
7595 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7596 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
7597 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
7598 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
7599
7600 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
7601 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7602 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7603 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
7604 fuser -mv
7605 </pre></blockquote>
7606
7607 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
7608 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
7609 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
7610 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
7611 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
7612 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
7613
7614 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
7615 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
7616 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
7617 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
7618 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
7619 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
7620 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
7621
7622 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
7623 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
7624 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
7625 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
7626 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
7627 packages.</p>
7628
7629       </div>
7630       <div class="tags">
7631
7632
7633         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>.
7634
7635
7636       </div>
7637     </div>
7638     <div class="padding"></div>
7639
7640     <div class="entry">
7641       <div class="title">
7642         <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>
7643       </div>
7644       <div class="date">
7645          6th June 2010
7646       </div>
7647       <div class="body">
7648         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
7649 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
7650 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
7651 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
7652 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
7653 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
7654 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
7655
7656 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
7657 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
7658 COLUMNS):</p>
7659
7660 <blockquote><pre>
7661 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
7662 previous=N
7663 PREVLEVEL=
7664 RUNLEVEL=
7665 runlevel=S
7666 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
7667 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
7668 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
7669 </pre></blockquote>
7670
7671 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
7672 script.</p>
7673
7674 <blockquote><pre>
7675 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
7676 previous=N
7677 PREVLEVEL=N
7678 RUNLEVEL=S
7679 runlevel=S
7680 </pre></blockquote>
7681
7682 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
7683 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
7684 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
7685
7686 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
7687 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
7688 choice.</p>
7689
7690       </div>
7691       <div class="tags">
7692
7693
7694         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>.
7695
7696
7697       </div>
7698     </div>
7699     <div class="padding"></div>
7700
7701     <div class="entry">
7702       <div class="title">
7703         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
7704       </div>
7705       <div class="date">
7706          6th June 2010
7707       </div>
7708       <div class="body">
7709         <p>Via the
7710 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
7711 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
7712 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
7713 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
7714 following the standards wars of today.</p>
7715
7716       </div>
7717       <div class="tags">
7718
7719
7720         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>.
7721
7722
7723       </div>
7724     </div>
7725     <div class="padding"></div>
7726
7727     <div class="entry">
7728       <div class="title">
7729         <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>
7730       </div>
7731       <div class="date">
7732          3rd June 2010
7733       </div>
7734       <div class="body">
7735         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
7736 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
7737 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
7738 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
7739 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
7740
7741 <blockquote><pre>
7742 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
7743   vendor                    count
7744   Dell Computer Corporation     1
7745     PowerEdge 1750              1
7746   IBM                           1
7747     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
7748   Intel                         2
7749   [no-dmi-info]                 3
7750 maintainer:~#
7751 </pre></blockquote>
7752
7753 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
7754 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
7755 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
7756 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
7757 option to list the individual machines.</p>
7758
7759 <p>A larger list is
7760 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
7761 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
7762 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
7763 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
7764 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
7765 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
7766 collector.</p>
7767
7768       </div>
7769       <div class="tags">
7770
7771
7772         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>.
7773
7774
7775       </div>
7776     </div>
7777     <div class="padding"></div>
7778
7779     <div class="entry">
7780       <div class="title">
7781         <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>
7782       </div>
7783       <div class="date">
7784          1st June 2010
7785       </div>
7786       <div class="body">
7787         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
7788 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
7789 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
7790 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
7791 wait.</p>
7792
7793 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
7794 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
7795 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
7796 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
7797 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
7798 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
7799
7800 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
7801 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
7802 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
7803 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
7804 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
7805 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
7806 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
7807 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
7808
7809 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
7810
7811       </div>
7812       <div class="tags">
7813
7814
7815         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>.
7816
7817
7818       </div>
7819     </div>
7820     <div class="padding"></div>
7821
7822     <div class="entry">
7823       <div class="title">
7824         <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>
7825       </div>
7826       <div class="date">
7827         27th May 2010
7828       </div>
7829       <div class="body">
7830         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
7831 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
7832 issues are known and should be solved:
7833
7834 <p><ul>
7835
7836 <li>The wicd package seen to
7837 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
7838 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
7839 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
7840 seem to be on the case.</li>
7841
7842 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
7843 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
7844 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
7845 maintainer is on the case.</li>
7846
7847 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
7848 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
7849 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
7850 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
7851 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
7852 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
7853 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
7854 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
7855
7856 </ul></p>
7857
7858 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
7859 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
7860 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
7861 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
7862
7863 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7864 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7865 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7866 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7867
7868 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
7869
7870       </div>
7871       <div class="tags">
7872
7873
7874         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>.
7875
7876
7877       </div>
7878     </div>
7879     <div class="padding"></div>
7880
7881     <div class="entry">
7882       <div class="title">
7883         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
7884       </div>
7885       <div class="date">
7886         22nd May 2010
7887       </div>
7888       <div class="body">
7889         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
7890 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
7891 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
7892 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
7893
7894 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
7895 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
7896 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
7897 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
7898 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
7899 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
7900 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
7901 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
7902 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
7903 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
7904 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
7905 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
7906 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
7907 going to work.</p>
7908
7909 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
7910 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
7911 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
7912 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
7913 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
7914 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
7915 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
7916 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
7917 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
7918 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
7919 Edu.</p>
7920
7921 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
7922 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
7923 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
7924 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
7925 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
7926 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
7927
7928 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
7929 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
7930
7931       </div>
7932       <div class="tags">
7933
7934
7935         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>.
7936
7937
7938       </div>
7939     </div>
7940     <div class="padding"></div>
7941
7942     <div class="entry">
7943       <div class="title">
7944         <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>
7945       </div>
7946       <div class="date">
7947         14th May 2010
7948       </div>
7949       <div class="body">
7950         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
7951 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
7952 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
7953 expected, if I am to believe the
7954 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7955 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
7956 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
7957 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
7958 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
7959 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
7960 version.</p>
7961
7962 More information about
7963 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7964 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
7965 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
7966 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7967
7968 <blockquote><pre>
7969 CONCURRENCY=none
7970 </pre></blockquote>
7971
7972 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7973 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7974 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7975 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7976
7977       </div>
7978       <div class="tags">
7979
7980
7981         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>.
7982
7983
7984       </div>
7985     </div>
7986     <div class="padding"></div>
7987
7988     <div class="entry">
7989       <div class="title">
7990         <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>
7991       </div>
7992       <div class="date">
7993         14th May 2010
7994       </div>
7995       <div class="body">
7996         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
7997 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
7998 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
7999 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
8000 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
8001 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
8002 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
8003 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
8004
8005 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
8006 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
8007 this on the collector host:</p>
8008
8009 <blockquote><pre>
8010 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
8011 </pre></blockquote>
8012
8013 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
8014 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
8015
8016 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
8017 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
8018 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
8019 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
8020 written yet.</p>
8021
8022       </div>
8023       <div class="tags">
8024
8025
8026         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>.
8027
8028
8029       </div>
8030     </div>
8031     <div class="padding"></div>
8032
8033     <div class="entry">
8034       <div class="title">
8035         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
8036       </div>
8037       <div class="date">
8038         13th May 2010
8039       </div>
8040       <div class="body">
8041         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
8042 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
8043 has been
8044 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
8045
8046 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
8047 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
8048 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
8049 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
8050 based boot system.  Tollef is
8051 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
8052 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
8053 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
8054 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
8055 at the moment do not.</p>
8056
8057 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
8058 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
8059 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
8060 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
8061 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
8062 way forward.</p>
8063
8064 <p>In the mean time, based on the
8065 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
8066 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
8067 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
8068 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
8069 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
8070 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
8071 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
8072 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
8073
8074       </div>
8075       <div class="tags">
8076
8077
8078         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>.
8079
8080
8081       </div>
8082     </div>
8083     <div class="padding"></div>
8084
8085     <div class="entry">
8086       <div class="title">
8087         <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>
8088       </div>
8089       <div class="date">
8090          6th May 2010
8091       </div>
8092       <div class="body">
8093         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
8094 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
8095 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
8096 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
8097 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8098 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
8099 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
8100
8101 <blockquote><pre>
8102 CONCURRENCY=makefile
8103 </pre></blockquote>
8104
8105 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
8106 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
8107 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
8108 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
8109 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
8110 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
8111 make this happen.</p>
8112
8113 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
8114 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
8115 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
8116 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
8117 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
8118
8119 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
8120 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
8121 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
8122 fix the remaining issues.</p>
8123
8124 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8125 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8126 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8127 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8128
8129       </div>
8130       <div class="tags">
8131
8132
8133         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>.
8134
8135
8136       </div>
8137     </div>
8138     <div class="padding"></div>
8139
8140     <div class="entry">
8141       <div class="title">
8142         <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>
8143       </div>
8144       <div class="date">
8145         27th July 2009
8146       </div>
8147       <div class="body">
8148         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
8149 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
8150 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
8151 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
8152 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
8153 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
8154 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
8155
8156 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
8157 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
8158 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
8159
8160       </div>
8161       <div class="tags">
8162
8163
8164         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>.
8165
8166
8167       </div>
8168     </div>
8169     <div class="padding"></div>
8170
8171     <div class="entry">
8172       <div class="title">
8173         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
8174       </div>
8175       <div class="date">
8176         22nd July 2009
8177       </div>
8178       <div class="body">
8179         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
8180 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
8181 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
8182 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
8183 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
8184 the package up to date.</p>
8185
8186 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
8187 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
8188 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
8189 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
8190 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
8191 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
8192 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
8193 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
8194 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
8195 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
8196 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
8197 working on the future release.</p>
8198
8199 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
8200 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
8201
8202       </div>
8203       <div class="tags">
8204
8205
8206         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>.
8207
8208
8209       </div>
8210     </div>
8211     <div class="padding"></div>
8212
8213     <div class="entry">
8214       <div class="title">
8215         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
8216       </div>
8217       <div class="date">
8218         24th June 2009
8219       </div>
8220       <div class="body">
8221         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
8222 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
8223 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
8224 funded
8225 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
8226 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
8227 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
8228 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
8229 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
8230 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
8231
8232 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
8233 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
8234 boot:</p>
8235
8236 <ul>
8237
8238 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
8239
8240 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
8241    clock is in UTC.</li>
8242
8243 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
8244    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8245    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
8246
8247 </ul>
8248
8249 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
8250 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
8251 Villegas</a>.
8252
8253 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
8254 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
8255 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
8256 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
8257 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
8258 using this.</p>
8259
8260 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
8261 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
8262 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
8263 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
8264 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
8265 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
8266 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
8267
8268       </div>
8269       <div class="tags">
8270
8271
8272         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>.
8273
8274
8275       </div>
8276     </div>
8277     <div class="padding"></div>
8278
8279     <div class="entry">
8280       <div class="title">
8281         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
8282       </div>
8283       <div class="date">
8284         17th May 2009
8285       </div>
8286       <div class="body">
8287         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
8288 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
8289 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
8290 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
8291 dager siden kom
8292 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
8293 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
8294 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
8295 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
8296 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
8297
8298 <blockquote>
8299 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
8300 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
8301 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
8302 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
8303 </blockquote>
8304
8305 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
8306 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
8307 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
8308 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
8309 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
8310
8311 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
8312 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
8313 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
8314
8315       </div>
8316       <div class="tags">
8317
8318
8319         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>.
8320
8321
8322       </div>
8323     </div>
8324     <div class="padding"></div>
8325
8326     <div class="entry">
8327       <div class="title">
8328         <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>
8329       </div>
8330       <div class="date">
8331          7th May 2009
8332       </div>
8333       <div class="body">
8334         <p>Kom over
8335 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
8336 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
8337 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
8338 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
8339 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
8340 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
8341 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
8342
8343       </div>
8344       <div class="tags">
8345
8346
8347         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>.
8348
8349
8350       </div>
8351     </div>
8352     <div class="padding"></div>
8353
8354     <div class="entry">
8355       <div class="title">
8356         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
8357       </div>
8358       <div class="date">
8359          2nd May 2009
8360       </div>
8361       <div class="body">
8362         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
8363 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
8364 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
8365 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
8366 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
8367 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
8368 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
8369 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
8370 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
8371 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
8372 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
8373 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
8374 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
8375 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
8376 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
8377 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
8378 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
8379 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
8380 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
8381 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
8382
8383 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
8384 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
8385 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
8386 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
8387 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
8388 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
8389 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
8390 betydelige.</p>
8391
8392       </div>
8393       <div class="tags">
8394
8395
8396         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>.
8397
8398
8399       </div>
8400     </div>
8401     <div class="padding"></div>
8402
8403     <div class="entry">
8404       <div class="title">
8405         <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>
8406       </div>
8407       <div class="date">
8408          2nd May 2009
8409       </div>
8410       <div class="body">
8411         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
8412 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
8413 do not yet know them.</p>
8414
8415 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
8416 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
8417 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
8418 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
8419 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
8420 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
8421 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
8422 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
8423 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
8424 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
8425 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
8426
8427 <p>The second one is
8428 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
8429 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
8430 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
8431 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
8432 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
8433 and the company behind it is running
8434 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
8435 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
8436 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
8437 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
8438 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
8439 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
8440 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
8441 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
8442
8443 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
8444 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
8445 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
8446 surrounded by today.</p>
8447
8448       </div>
8449       <div class="tags">
8450
8451
8452         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>.
8453
8454
8455       </div>
8456     </div>
8457     <div class="padding"></div>
8458
8459     <div class="entry">
8460       <div class="title">
8461         <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>
8462       </div>
8463       <div class="date">
8464         28th April 2009
8465       </div>
8466       <div class="body">
8467         <p>Julien Blache
8468 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
8469 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
8470 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
8471 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
8472 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
8473 properties.</p>
8474
8475       </div>
8476       <div class="tags">
8477
8478
8479         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>.
8480
8481
8482       </div>
8483     </div>
8484     <div class="padding"></div>
8485
8486     <div class="entry">
8487       <div class="title">
8488         <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>
8489       </div>
8490       <div class="date">
8491         30th March 2009
8492       </div>
8493       <div class="body">
8494         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
8495 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
8496 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
8497 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
8498 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
8499 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
8500 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
8501 application.</p>
8502
8503 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
8504 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
8505 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
8506 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
8507 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
8508 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
8509 blocked from doing so.</p>
8510
8511 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
8512 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
8513 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
8514 requirements change.</p>
8515
8516 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
8517 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
8518 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
8519
8520       </div>
8521       <div class="tags">
8522
8523
8524         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>.
8525
8526
8527       </div>
8528     </div>
8529     <div class="padding"></div>
8530
8531     <div class="entry">
8532       <div class="title">
8533         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
8534       </div>
8535       <div class="date">
8536         29th March 2009
8537       </div>
8538       <div class="body">
8539         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
8540 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
8541 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
8542 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
8543 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
8544 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
8545 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
8546 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
8547 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
8548 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
8549 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
8550 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
8551 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
8552 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
8553 now. :)</p>
8554
8555       </div>
8556       <div class="tags">
8557
8558
8559         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>.
8560
8561
8562       </div>
8563     </div>
8564     <div class="padding"></div>
8565
8566     <div class="entry">
8567       <div class="title">
8568         <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>
8569       </div>
8570       <div class="date">
8571         29th March 2009
8572       </div>
8573       <div class="body">
8574         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
8575 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
8576 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
8577 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
8578 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
8579 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
8580
8581 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
8582 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
8583 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
8584 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
8585 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
8586 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
8587 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
8588 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
8589 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
8590 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
8591 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
8592 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
8593 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
8594
8595 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
8596 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
8597 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
8598 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
8599
8600 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
8601 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
8602
8603 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
8604 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
8605 new IETF work group?</p>
8606
8607       </div>
8608       <div class="tags">
8609
8610
8611         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>.
8612
8613
8614       </div>
8615     </div>
8616     <div class="padding"></div>
8617
8618     <div class="entry">
8619       <div class="title">
8620         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
8621       </div>
8622       <div class="date">
8623         15th February 2009
8624       </div>
8625       <div class="body">
8626         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
8627 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
8628 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
8629 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
8630 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
8631 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
8632 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
8633 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
8634 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
8635 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
8636 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
8637 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
8638
8639       </div>
8640       <div class="tags">
8641
8642
8643         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>.
8644
8645
8646       </div>
8647     </div>
8648     <div class="padding"></div>
8649
8650     <div class="entry">
8651       <div class="title">
8652         <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>
8653       </div>
8654       <div class="date">
8655          7th December 2008
8656       </div>
8657       <div class="body">
8658         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
8659 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
8660 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
8661 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
8662 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
8663 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
8664 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
8665 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
8666
8667 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
8668 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
8669 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
8670 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
8671 of these cards.</p>
8672
8673       </div>
8674       <div class="tags">
8675
8676
8677         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>.
8678
8679
8680       </div>
8681     </div>
8682     <div class="padding"></div>
8683
8684     <div class="entry">
8685       <div class="title">
8686         <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>
8687       </div>
8688       <div class="date">
8689         25th November 2008
8690       </div>
8691       <div class="body">
8692         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
8693 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
8694 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
8695 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
8696 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
8697 notes are available on
8698 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
8699 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
8700 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
8701 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
8702 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
8703 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
8704 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
8705 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
8706 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
8707
8708 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
8709 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</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/web">web</a>.
8716
8717
8718       </div>
8719     </div>
8720     <div class="padding"></div>
8721
8722     <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>
8723     <div id="sidebar">
8724
8725
8726
8727 <h2>Archive</h2>
8728 <ul>
8729
8730 <li>2014
8731 <ul>
8732
8733 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8734
8735 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
8736
8737 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
8738
8739 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8740
8741 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
8742
8743 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8744
8745 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
8746
8747 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
8748
8749 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8750
8751 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (3)</a></li>
8752
8753 </ul></li>
8754
8755 <li>2013
8756 <ul>
8757
8758 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
8759
8760 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
8761
8762 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
8763
8764 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
8765
8766 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8767
8768 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
8769
8770 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8771
8772 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8773
8774 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8775
8776 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
8777
8778 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
8779
8780 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8781
8782 </ul></li>
8783
8784 <li>2012
8785 <ul>
8786
8787 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
8788
8789 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
8790
8791 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
8792
8793 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
8794
8795 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
8796
8797 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
8798
8799 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
8800
8801 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8802
8803 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
8804
8805 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
8806
8807 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
8808
8809 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8810
8811 </ul></li>
8812
8813 <li>2011
8814 <ul>
8815
8816 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
8817
8818 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
8819
8820 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
8821
8822 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8823
8824 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
8825
8826 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8827
8828 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8829
8830 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8831
8832 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
8833
8834 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8835
8836 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8837
8838 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
8839
8840 </ul></li>
8841
8842 <li>2010
8843 <ul>
8844
8845 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8846
8847 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
8848
8849 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
8850
8851 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
8852
8853 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8854
8855 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
8856
8857 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
8858
8859 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
8860
8861 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
8862
8863 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
8864
8865 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
8866
8867 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
8868
8869 </ul></li>
8870
8871 <li>2009
8872 <ul>
8873
8874 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
8875
8876 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
8877
8878 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
8879
8880 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
8881
8882 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8883
8884 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
8885
8886 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
8887
8888 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8889
8890 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
8891
8892 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8893
8894 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8895
8896 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8897
8898 </ul></li>
8899
8900 <li>2008
8901 <ul>
8902
8903 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
8904
8905 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8906
8907 </ul></li>
8908
8909 </ul>
8910
8911
8912
8913 <h2>Tags</h2>
8914 <ul>
8915
8916  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
8917
8918  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
8919
8920  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
8921
8922  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
8923
8924  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
8925
8926  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (14)</a></li>
8927
8928  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
8929
8930  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
8931
8932  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (106)</a></li>
8933
8934  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (150)</a></li>
8935
8936  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
8937
8938  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
8939
8940  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (12)</a></li>
8941
8942  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
8943
8944  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (258)</a></li>
8945
8946  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
8947
8948  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
8949
8950  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (13)</a></li>
8951
8952  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (8)</a></li>
8953
8954  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
8955
8956  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (41)</a></li>
8957
8958  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (10)</a></li>
8959
8960  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
8961
8962  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
8963
8964  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
8965
8966  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
8967
8968  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
8969
8970  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
8971
8972  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (31)</a></li>
8973
8974  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (248)</a></li>
8975
8976  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (162)</a></li>
8977
8978  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (11)</a></li>
8979
8980  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
8981
8982  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (48)</a></li>
8983
8984  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (75)</a></li>
8985
8986  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
8987
8988  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
8989
8990  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
8991
8992  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
8993
8994  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
8995
8996  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
8997
8998  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
8999
9000  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
9001
9002  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (41)</a></li>
9003
9004  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
9005
9006  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
9007
9008  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (45)</a></li>
9009
9010  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
9011
9012  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
9013
9014  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (26)</a></li>
9015
9016  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
9017
9018  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
9019
9020  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (43)</a></li>
9021
9022  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
9023
9024  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (33)</a></li>
9025
9026 </ul>
9027
9028
9029     </div>
9030     <p style="text-align: right">
9031  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
9032 </p>
9033
9034   </body>
9035 </html>