blog/archive/2013/07/07.rss

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   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from July 2013</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from July 2013</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Tue, 9 Jul 2013 10:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
  15 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
  16 party in Oslo.  It is organised by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;the
  17 member assosiation NUUG&lt;/a&gt; and
  18 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  19 project&lt;/a&gt; together with &lt;a href=&quot;http://bitraf.no/&quot;&gt;the hack space
  20 Bitraf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  21
  22 &lt;p&gt;It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
  23 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
  24 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
  25 on &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo&quot;&gt;the event
  26 wiki page&lt;/a&gt; if you plan to join us.&lt;/p&gt;
  27 </description>
  28         </item>
  29
  30         <item>
  31                 <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</title>
  32                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</link>
  33                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html</guid>
  34                 <pubDate>Fri, 5 Jul 2013 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  35                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
  36 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html&quot;&gt;replacement
  37 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41&lt;/a&gt;.  Unfortunately I did not have much
  38 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
  39 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
  40 ended up picking a
  41 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230&quot;&gt;Thinkpad X230&lt;/a&gt;
  42 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
  43 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
  44 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
  45 on that below.&lt;/p&gt;
  46
  47 &lt;p&gt;I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
  48 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
  49 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
  50 feature at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.prisjakt.no/&quot;&gt;Prisjakt&lt;/a&gt;, which
  51 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
  52 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
  53 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
  54 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
  55 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.&lt;/p&gt;
  56
  57 &lt;p&gt;So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
  58 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
  59 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
  60 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
  61 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
  62 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
  63 needed a new laptop now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  64
  65 &lt;p&gt;Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
  66 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.&lt;/p&gt;
  67
  68 &lt;p&gt;But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
  69 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
  70 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
  71 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
  72 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
  73 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
  74 reported to Debian as &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/691427&quot;&gt;BTS
  75 report #691427 2012-10-25&lt;/a&gt; (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
  76 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
  77 kernel developers as
  78 &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861&quot;&gt;Kernel bugzilla
  79 report #51861 2012-12-20&lt;/a&gt; (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
  80 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
  81 Lenovo forums, both for
  82 &lt;a href=&quot;http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549&quot;&gt;T430
  83 2012-11-10&lt;/a&gt; and for
  84 &lt;a href=&quot;http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147&quot;&gt;X230
  85 03-20-2013&lt;/a&gt;.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
  86 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
  87 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
  88 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
  89 There is even a
  90 &lt;a href=&quot;https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git&quot;&gt;small C program
  91 available&lt;/a&gt; that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
  92 minutes by writing to a file.&lt;/p&gt;
  93
  94 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
  95 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
  96 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
  97 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
  98 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
  99 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
 100 fixed. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 101 </description>
 102         </item>
 103
 104         <item>
 105                 <title>The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</title>
 106                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html</link>
 107                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html</guid>
 108                 <pubDate>Thu, 4 Jul 2013 09:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
 109                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
 110 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
 111 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
 112 picking a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230&quot;&gt;Thinkpad
 113 X230&lt;/a&gt; with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
 114 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
 115 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
 116 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
 117 with an expencive door stop.&lt;/p&gt;
 118
 119 &lt;p&gt;I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 120 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 121 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 122 feature at &lt;ahref=&quot;http://www.prisjakt.no/&quot;&gt;Prisjakt&lt;/a&gt;, which
 123 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 124 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
 125 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.&lt;/p&gt;
 126
 127 &lt;p&gt;I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
 128 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
 129 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
 130 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
 131 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
 132 new laptop now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 133
 134 &lt;p&gt;I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.&lt;/p&gt;
 135 </description>
 136         </item>
 137
 138         <item>
 139                 <title>Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
 140                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
 141                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
 142                 <pubDate>Wed, 3 Jul 2013 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
 143                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
 144 today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;
 145
 146 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
 147 2013-07-03&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 148
 149 &lt;p&gt;These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 150 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
 151
 152 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 153
 154 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
 155 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 156 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 157 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
 158 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 159 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 160 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 161 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 162 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
 163 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
 164 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
 165 desktop contains
 166 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
 167 than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
 168 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
 169 and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;
 170
 171 &lt;p&gt;This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
 172 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
 173 Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;
 174
 175 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 176 &lt;ul&gt;
 177   &lt;li&gt;Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.&lt;/li&gt;
 178   &lt;li&gt;Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
 179     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
 180     brings KDE in line with the others.&lt;/li&gt;
 181   &lt;li&gt;Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
 182     they don&#39;t have a desktop menu entry and thus won&#39;t show up in the
 183     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.&lt;/li&gt;
 184   &lt;li&gt;Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
 185     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
 186     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
 187     too.&lt;/li&gt;
 188   &lt;li&gt;Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
 189     are too few to make the package useful.&lt;/li&gt;
 190 &lt;/ul&gt;
 191 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 192 &lt;ul&gt;
 193   &lt;li&gt;Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
 194   &lt;li&gt;Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.&lt;/li&gt;
 195   &lt;li&gt;Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
 196     up for some language options.&lt;/li&gt;
 197   &lt;li&gt;Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.&lt;/li&gt;
 198   &lt;li&gt;Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
 199   &lt;li&gt;Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
 200     d-i is doing it.&lt;/li&gt;
 201   &lt;li&gt;Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
 202     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
 203   &lt;li&gt;Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
 204     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
 205     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.&lt;/li&gt;
 206   &lt;li&gt;Update system to install needed firmware packages during
 207     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.&lt;/li&gt;
 208   &lt;li&gt;Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).&lt;/li&gt;
 209   &lt;li&gt;Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
 210     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.&lt;/li&gt;
 211   &lt;li&gt;LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
 212     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.&lt;/li&gt;
 213 &lt;/ul&gt;
 214 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 215 &lt;ul&gt;
 216   &lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 217     available yet (698840).&lt;/li&gt;
 218   &lt;li&gt;Artwork not enabled for all desktops.&lt;/li&gt;
 219 &lt;/ul&gt;
 220 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 221
 222 &lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
 223 &lt;ul&gt;
 224   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 225   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 226   &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
 227 &lt;/ul&gt;
 228
 229 &lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
 230 &lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8&lt;/p&gt;
 231
 232 &lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
 233 &lt;ul&gt;
 234   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 235   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 236   &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
 237 &lt;/ul&gt;
 238
 239 &lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
 240 &lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721&lt;/p&gt;
 241
 242 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 243
 244 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 245 </description>
 246         </item>
 247
 248         </channel>
 249 </rss>