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        <channel>
                <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries tagged debian edu</title>
                <description>Entries tagged debian edu</description>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>

        
        <item>
                <title>Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2016 14:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
installation system, observing how using
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html&quot;&gt;eatmydata
could speed up the installation&lt;/a&gt; quite a bit.  My testing measured
speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
up the process make perfect sense.

&lt;p&gt;I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata&quot;&gt;eatmydata&lt;/a&gt;,
but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
following untested kernel argument should do the trick:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
preseed/early_command=&quot;anna-install eatmydata-udeb&quot;
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/841153&quot;&gt;extend the idea a bit further
by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf&lt;/a&gt;, but I have not
tested its impact.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>The new &quot;best&quot; multimedia player in Debian?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 6 Jun 2016 12:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html&quot;&gt;which
multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
MIME types&lt;/a&gt;, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport&quot;&gt;Multimedia
player MIME type support status&lt;/a&gt; Debian wiki page.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The new &quot;best&quot; multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
toten and parole.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
formats.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 8 May 2016 09:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
Debian claim support for most file formats.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
plugin supported most file formats / media types.
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;The
result&lt;/a&gt; can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
players.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/822245&quot;&gt;missing MIME type in the VLC
desktop file&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
support most file formats.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport&quot;&gt;a
table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
in the table&lt;/a&gt;, with the package supporting most MIME types being
listed first in the table.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;/p&gt;The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
support?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Ny utgave (v2.2) av den frie norske stavekontrollen gitt ut</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ny_utgave__v2_2__av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen_gitt_ut.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ny_utgave__v2_2__av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen_gitt_ut.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2016 21:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag tok jeg mot til meg og pakket sammen en ny versjon av den
frie norske stavekontrollen, ca. tre og et halvt år etter forrige
gang.  Resultatet kan lastes ned fra
&lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org/&quot;&gt;no.speling.org-prosjeksiden&lt;/a&gt;, både
som kildekodepakke og som &quot;pack&quot;-fil som kanskje fortsatt kan brukes
av OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.  Byggesystemet trenger oppussing, men i
denne omgang hadde jeg bare tid til å fikse byggefeil forårsaket av
endringer i GNU grep.  De øvrige endringene var gjort tidligere i
påvente av en ny utgave.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Her er det som er nytt (fra NEWS-fila i
kildekodepakken):&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Release 2.2 (2016-04-15)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;Rewrite how scripts/speling2words handle tripple consonants, to
   avoid importing duplicate words from no.speling.org, and getting
   rid of the existing duplicates in norsk.words.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Remove duplicate entries with tripple consonants from norsk.words.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Update frequency for entries in norsk.words based on
   &lt;URL:http://helmer.aksis.uib.no/nta/ordlistf.zip&gt; (ran &#39;make
   freq-update&#39;).&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Correct nn ispell build, avoid crash in munchlist causing lots of
   words to fall out of the database.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Use grep -a to convince grep it is working on text files, to work
   with newer grep versions.&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;Remove some words disputed in the no.speling.org review process:
   &lt;ul&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;apparent (nb)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;likke (nb)&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;li&gt;ugjest, ugjesten, ugjestens (nb)&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2015 09:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/&quot;&gt;The
GPL is not magic pixie dust&lt;/a&gt;&quot; explain the importance of making sure
the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html&quot;&gt;GPL&lt;/a&gt; is enforced.
I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:&lt;p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png&quot; width=&quot;194&quot; height=&quot;90&quot; alt=&quot;Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.&lt;br/&gt;

The first step is to choose a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://copyleft.org/&quot;&gt;copyleft&lt;/a&gt; license for your
code.&lt;br/&gt;

The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
&lt;b&gt;it must be enforced&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;

and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
work&lt;br/&gt;

is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;small&gt;-- &lt;a href=&quot;http://ebb.org/bkuhn/&quot;&gt;Bradley Kuhn&lt;/a&gt;, in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://faif.us/&quot; title=&quot;Free as in Freedom&quot;&gt;FaiF&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/&quot;&gt;episode
0x57&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As the Debian Website
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/794116&quot;&gt;used&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;amp;r2=1.25&quot;&gt;to&lt;/a&gt;
imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community&#39;s
expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
and Bradley explained in &lt;a href=&quot;http://faif.us/&quot; title=&quot;Free as in
Freedom&quot;&gt;FaiF&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/&quot;&gt;episode 0x57&lt;/a&gt;,
copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
to protect it.  The reality of today&#39;s world is that legal
representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
&lt;a href=&quot;http://gpl-violations.org/&quot;&gt;gpl-violations.org&lt;/a&gt; in hiatus
&lt;a href=&quot;http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/&quot;&gt;until&lt;/a&gt;
some time in 2016, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/&quot;&gt;Software
Freedom Conservancy&lt;/a&gt; (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
In March the SFC supported a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/&quot;&gt;lawsuit
by Christoph Hellwig&lt;/a&gt; against VMware for refusing to
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html&quot;&gt;comply
with the GPL&lt;/a&gt; in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
conferences
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/&quot;&gt;blocked
or cancelled their talks&lt;/a&gt;.  As a result they have decided to rely
less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/&quot;&gt;launched&lt;/a&gt;
a &lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/&quot;&gt;campaign&lt;/a&gt; to create
a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
Software.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you support Free Software,
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/&quot;&gt;like&lt;/a&gt;
what the SFC do, agree with their
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html&quot;&gt;compliance
principles&lt;/a&gt;, are happy about their
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/&quot;&gt;successes&lt;/a&gt; in 2015,
work on a project that is an SFC
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/&quot;&gt;member&lt;/a&gt; and or
just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
&lt;a href=&quot;https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA&quot;&gt;Christopher
Allan Webber&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/&quot;&gt;Carol
Smith&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/&quot;&gt;Jono
Bacon&lt;/a&gt;, myself and
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters&quot;&gt;others&lt;/a&gt; in
becoming a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/&quot;&gt;supporter&lt;/a&gt;.  For the
next week your donation will be
&lt;a href=&quot;https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/&quot;&gt;matched&lt;/a&gt;
by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don&#39;t forget to
spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
social media accounts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
supporter too?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_beta_release.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_beta_release.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2015 14:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2015/04/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;this
announcement today&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first
*beta* release of Debian Edu &quot;Jessie&quot; 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first
time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable
release, Debian 8 &quot;Jessie&quot;.

(As most reading this will know, Debian &quot;Jessie&quot; hasn&#39;t actually been
released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish
later today ;)

We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu &quot;Jessie&quot; in the coming
weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades
from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will
be possible and encouraged!

Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit
bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs

Debian Edu - sometimes also known as &quot;Skolelinux&quot; - is a complete
operating system for schools, universities and other
organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles
administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which
will work in harmony on the school network.  With Debian Edu, the
teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a
complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or
days.

Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the
world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come
with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian
archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach.

For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
installation instructions are available, including detailed
instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting
up a network or adding users.  Please note that the password for the
user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at
least 5 characters!

== Where to download ==

A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
can be downloaded at the following locations:

    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso
    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso . 

The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a

Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also
available, with more software included (saving additional download
time):

    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso 

The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636

Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
options.

== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==

Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.

This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian,
Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists
for Spanish.  See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for
online version of the translated manual.

More information about Debian 8 &quot;Jessie&quot; itself is provided in the
release notes and the installation manual:
- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual


== Errata / known problems ==

    It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
    DHCP (#780461).

    The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). 

Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
hostname immediately.

Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
more current and complete list.

== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==

=== Software updates ===

Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:

 * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for
   i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like
   Intel Pentium and AMD K5).

 * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14,
   Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
   * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
   * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of
     the others see the manual.
 * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
 * LibreOffice 4.3.3
 * GOsa 2.7.4
 * LTSP 5.5.4
 * CUPS print system 1.7.5
 * new boot framework: systemd
 * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
 * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
 * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
 * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
 * golearn 0.9
 * tuxpaint 0.9.22
 * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
 * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation.
 * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release
   notes and the installation manual, see the link above.

=== Installation changes ===

    Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
    for the hardware present.

=== Fixed bugs ===

A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
from a user perspective:

 * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
   information is corrected (710362)

 * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). 

=== Sugar desktop removed ===

As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
available in Debian Edu jessie.


== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==

Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on
Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
configured school network. Directly after installation a school server
running all services needed for a school network is set up just
waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
environment.

== About Debian ==

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
operating system.

== Thanks ==

Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
You rock.
&lt;/pre&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete
computer system for schools I&#39;ve involved in,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, was
being used in India.  But apparently it is, and I managed to get an
interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish
Agarwal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and
historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India.
My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips,
installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different
fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with
few software start-ups as well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few
years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was
anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free
educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many
nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as
it was known then.  Since then I have started using the various
education meta-packages provided by the project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s closest I have seen where a package full of educational
software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and
figuratively).  Even if I take the simplest software which is
gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of
the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even
pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/781841&quot;&gt;#781841&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/781842&quot;&gt;#781842&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions,
as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the
possibility of a larger life span.  Of course with both it&#39;s more a
question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both
for the developer per-se.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I
think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take
help from people and the larger community wherever possible.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact
that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it.
However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is
pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done
but for reasons not known not done or if done I don&#39;t know about them.
Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but
still) I have had for a long time :&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions
each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how
far would each travel and similar questions like these.

&lt;p&gt;The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can
be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in
interactive manner. While sites such as the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.two.trains.html&quot;&gt;Ask
Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem&lt;/a&gt; (as an example or point of
inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done.  I dunno
if there is a free software which does something like this.  The idea
being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does
this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or
colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question
or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour.
This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how
the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started,
psychics and everything in-between.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on
one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they
meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could
also be used.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have
enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary.  I don&#39;t think it
should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and
sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&amp;A single word answers
from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be
the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on
the user&#39;s input.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called
palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What
needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and
copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into
nature, history etc.  and let it loose. This could turn to be really
huge collection of images. One source could be taken from
commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free
stock photos. Potential is immense.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag
both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a
lot.  This is more so in educational software as these applications
need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is
immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and
maintenance of such software I don&#39;t see any big difficulties. I know
of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and
maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt,
aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays),
quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly
between kpat and Aiselriot.  In desktops it&#39;s a tie between
gnome-flashback and mate.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in
whatever environment they are. If it&#39;s MS-Windows or Mac so be it.
Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the
school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the
people now understand the concept of a repository because of the
various online stores so it isn&#39;t hard to convince on that front.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and
passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers
then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as
well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For
instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but
there isn&#39;t even a page where all those different fonts in the La
Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates
and upgrades.  People have this myth that each update and upgrade
means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this
innumerable times.  That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers
like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because
it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that
changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with
the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS
releases.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest
is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu
is aimed at.

&lt;p&gt;Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for
around 2 years, and
&lt;a href=&quot;https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/sharings/&quot;&gt;gathered
some experience&lt;/a&gt; there.  Some of the things we learnt/discovered
there was :&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects
   and they do not want you to teach anything out of the
   portion/syllabus given.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever
   is in the syllabus.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;There are huge barriers both with the English language and at
   times with objects or whatever. An example, let&#39;s say in gcompris
   you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let&#39;s
   say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be
   as recognizable as say a
   &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puneri_Pagadi&quot;&gt;Puneri
   Pagdi&lt;/a&gt; so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever
   possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words
   which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in
   parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or
   something but that is something for upstream to do.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2014 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just
sent out
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2014/10/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;this
announcement&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0

Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.

For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
installation instructions are available, including detailed
instructions in the manual[1] explaining the first steps, such as
setting up a network or adding users. Please note that the password
for the user your prompted for during installation must have a length
of at least 5 characters!

 [1] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie&quot;&gt;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

Would you like to give your school&#39;s computer a longer life? Are you
tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
Check out Debian Edu Jessie!

Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
mostly in Germany and Norway.

About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
===============================

Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
machines can be installed via the network.  The provided school server
provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
packages[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
environment.

 [2] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;http://www.skolelinux.org/&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;
 [3] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

Full release notes and manual
=============================

Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
available, see the manual translation overview[5].

 [4] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features&quot;&gt;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;
 [5] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/&quot;&gt;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

Where to get it
---------------

To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use

 * &lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;
 * &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;
 * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .

The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095

New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
===============================================================================


Installation changes
--------------------

 * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.

Software updates
----------------

Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:

 * Linux kernel 3.16.x
 * Desktop environments KDE &quot;Plasma&quot; 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
   LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE &quot;Plasma&quot; is installed by default; to
   choose one of the others see manual.)
 * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 
 * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
 * GOsa 2.7.4
 * LTSP 5.5.4
 * CUPS print system 1.7.5
 * new boot framework: systemd
 * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 
 * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
 * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
 * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
 * golearn 0.9
 * tuxpaint 0.9.22
 * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
 * Debian Jessie includes about 42000 packages available for
   installation.
 * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
   notes[6] and the installation manual[7].

 [6] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;
 [7] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

Fixed bugs
----------

 * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
   information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
 * and many others.

Documentation and translation updates
------------------------------------- 

 * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
   Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
   Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.

Other changes
-------------

 * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
   server takes more time.
 * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
   doesn&#39;t work.

Regressions / known problems
----------------------------

 * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
   exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
   and Debian bug #762103).
 * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
   #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
 * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
   work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
   Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.

See the status page[8] for the complete list.

 [8] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie&quot;&gt;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

How to report bugs
------------------

&amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;

About Debian
============

The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
operating system.

Contact Information
For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
mail to press@debian.org.

 [9] &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;
&lt;/pre&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
future.  The
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie&quot;&gt;current
status&lt;/a&gt; can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
recipe on how to get the installation limping along.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First, download the test ISO via
&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso&quot;&gt;ftp&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso&quot;&gt;http&lt;/a&gt;
or rsync (use
ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
install with some tweaking.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
(use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;and add &#39;exit 0&#39; as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
due to a known bug in eatmydata.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
your need.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
days.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
provided in bug &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/702711&quot;&gt;#702711&lt;/a&gt;.
The rest have proper fixes in unstable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2014 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt; installer could be
a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; using
tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/613428&quot;&gt;bug #613428&lt;/a&gt; about too
much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
relevant while the installer is running.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
depend on the small and clever package
&lt;a href=&quot;https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata&quot;&gt;eatmydata&lt;/a&gt;, which
uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
them with a simple shell wrapper calling
&quot;eatmydata&amp;nbsp;$program&amp;nbsp;$@&quot;, to get the same effect.
Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
/var/log/syslog between the &quot;pkgsel: starting tasksel&quot; and the
&quot;pkgsel: finishing up&quot; lines, if you want to do the same measurement
yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
dialog.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;table&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Machine/setup&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Original tasksel&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Optimised tasksel&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Reduction&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;64 min (07:46-08:50)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;44 min (11:27-12:11)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&gt;20 min 18%&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;57 min (08:48-09:45)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;34 min (07:43-08:17)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;23 min 40%&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Latitude D505 Minimal&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;22 min (10:37-10:59)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;11 min (11:16-11:27)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;11 min 50%&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Thinkpad X200 Minimal&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;6 min (08:19-08:25)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;4 min (08:04-08:08)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;2 min 33%&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;19 min (09:21-09:40)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;15 min (10:25-10:40)&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;4 min 21%&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
installed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/&quot;&gt;Debian
Installer&lt;/a&gt;, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
for the entire installation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve implemented this in the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install&quot;&gt;debian-edu-install&lt;/a&gt;
git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
#!/bin/sh
set -e
. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
info() {
    logger -t my-pkgsel &quot;info: $*&quot;
}
error() {
    logger -t my-pkgsel &quot;error: $*&quot;
}
override_install() {
    apt-install eatmydata || true
    if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
        for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
            file=/usr/bin/$bin
            # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
            if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
                info &quot;diverting $file using eatmydata&quot;
                printf &quot;#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \&quot;\$@\&quot;\n&quot; \
                    &gt; /target$file.edu
                chmod 755 /target$file.edu
                in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
                    --rename --quiet --add $file
                ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
            else
                error &quot;unable to divert $file, as it is missing.&quot;
            fi
        done
    else
        error &quot;unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage&quot;
    fi
}

override_install
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To clean up, another shell script should go into
/usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
#! /bin/sh -e
. /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
error() {
    logger -t my-finish-install &quot;error: $@&quot;
}
remove_install_override() {
    for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
        file=/usr/bin/$bin
        if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
            rm /target$file
            in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
                --rename --quiet --remove $file
            rm /target$file.edu
        else
            error &quot;Missing divert for $file.&quot;
        fi
    done
    sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
}

remove_install_override
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
finish-install.d scripts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
depend on the side effects of the change.  I&#39;m not aware of any, but I
guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
everyone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/702711&quot;&gt;bug #702711&lt;/a&gt;.  An updated
eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/765738&quot;&gt;bug #765738&lt;/a&gt; in eatmydata only
triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
optimization again.  If &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/768893&quot;&gt;unblock
request 768893&lt;/a&gt; is accepted, it should be working again.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2014 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for
schools, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people
involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists
from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust
the setup.  I managed to interview him this summer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I&#39;m married with Hedda, a self
employed physiotherapist.  My former profession is tool maker, but I
haven&#39;t worked for 30 years in this job.  30 years ago I started to
support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the
administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu
Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows
Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only
works with Windows . :-(&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use
Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX.  Today we are running a
Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of
children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist,
psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to
work with the documentations of our patients.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in
his school (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/&quot;&gt;Gymnasium
Harsewinkel&lt;/a&gt;).  They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they
were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the
software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their
computer skills in optional lessons.  I&#39;m spending 4-6 hours a week
with this job.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The independence.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the
software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software
included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the
possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices.  The
servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are
working reliable. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45
workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile
solution for all classrooms.  These machines are all booting from the
terminal server.  In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile
workstations.  Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these
machines in their classrooms.  Internet access is realized by a WLAN
router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a
dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Teachers and pupils are Windows users.  &amp;lt;Irony on&amp;gt; And Linux
isn&#39;t cool. It&#39;s software for freaks using the command line. &amp;lt;Irony
off&amp;gt; They don&#39;t realize the stability of the system. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba,
Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide
which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by
teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with
Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS
Office. They don&#39;t know about the possibility to use Free Software
instead.  Another problem are the publisher of school books.  They
develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
text processing of this manual is handled in the project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
goals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/&quot;&gt;Debian
wiki&lt;/a&gt;, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
for each chapter, and finally one &quot;collection page&quot; gluing all the
chapters together into one large web page (aka
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne&quot;&gt;the
AllInOne page&lt;/a&gt;).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in/&quot;&gt;MoinMoin&lt;/a&gt; installation on
wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.docbook.org/&quot;&gt;the Docbook format&lt;/a&gt;, we can fetch
the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
manual.  This process also download images and transform image
references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
using the &lt;tt&gt;documentation/scripts/get_manual&lt;/tt&gt; program, and the
result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
track the English original.  For this we use the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html&quot;&gt;poxml&lt;/a&gt; package,
which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
files), which the translations update with the native language
translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
of the documentation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
recommend using
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/&quot;&gt;lokalize&lt;/a&gt;,
while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
&lt;a href=&quot;http://pootle.translatehouse.org/&quot;&gt;Poodle&lt;/a&gt; or
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.transifex.com/&quot;&gt;Transifex&lt;/a&gt;.  All we care about
is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc&quot;&gt;bug reports
against the debian-edu-doc package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
translated images by storing translated versions in
images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
package maintainers know more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
&lt;a href=&quot;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/&quot;&gt;the content
of the documentation packages on the web&lt;/a&gt;.  See for example the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf&quot;&gt;Italian
PDF version&lt;/a&gt; or the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html&quot;&gt;German
HTML version&lt;/a&gt;.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
but perhaps it will be done in the future.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To learn more, check out
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html&quot;&gt;the
debian-edu-doc package&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/&quot;&gt;the
manual on the wiki&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations&quot;&gt;the
translation instructions&lt;/a&gt; in the manual.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
keep gaining new users.  Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC,
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu&quot;&gt;#debian-edu&lt;/a&gt;, with a
wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great
contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Roger Marsal, I&#39;m 27 years old (1986 generation) and I
live in Barcelona, Spain. I&#39;ve got a strong business background and I
work as a patrimony manager and as a real estate agent.  Additionally,
I&#39;ve co-founded a British based tech company that is nowadays on the
last development phase of a new social networking concept.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a Linux enthusiast that started its journey with Ubuntu four years
ago and have recently switched to Debian seeking rock solid stability
and as a necessary step to gain expertise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In a nutshell, I spend my days working and learning as much as I
can to face both my job, entrepreneur project and feed my Linux
hunger.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I discovered the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ltsp.org/&quot;&gt;LTSP&lt;/a&gt; advantages
with &quot;Ubuntu 12.04 alternate install&quot; and after a year of use I
started looking for an alternative.  Even though I highly value and
respect the Ubuntu project, I thought it was necessary for me to
change to a more robust and stable alternative.  As far as I was using
Debian on my personal laptop I thought it would be fine to install
Debian and configure an LTSP server myself.  Surprised, I discovered
that the Debian project also supported a kind of Edubuntu equivalent,
and after having some pain I obtained a Debian Edu network up and
running.  I just loved it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found a main advantage in that, once you know &quot;the tips and
tricks&quot;, a new installation just works out of the box. It&#39;s the most
complete alternative I&#39;ve found to create an LTSP network. All the
other distributions seems to be made of plastic, Debian Edu seems to
be made of steel.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found two main disadvantages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not an expert but I&#39;ve got notions and I had to spent a considerable
amount of time trying to bring up a standard network topology. I&#39;m quite
stubborn and I just worked until I did but I&#39;m sure many people with few
resources (not big schools, but academies for example) would have switched
or dropped.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s amazing how such a complex system like Debian Edu has achieved
this out-of-the-box state. Even though tweaking without breaking gets
more difficult, as more factors have to be considered. This can
discourage many people too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and
Virtualbox.&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t think there is a need for a particular strategy. The free
attribute in both &quot;freedom&quot; and &quot;no price&quot; meanings is what will
really bring free software to schools. In my experience I can think of
the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.r-project.org/&quot;&gt;&quot;R&quot; statistical language&lt;/a&gt;; a
few years a ago was an extremely nerd tool for university people.
Today it&#39;s being increasingly used to teach statistics at many
different level of studies.  I believe free and open software will
increasingly gain popularity, but I&#39;m sure schools will be one of the
first scenarios where this will happen.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>How to add extra storage servers in Debian Edu / Skolelinux</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_add_extra_storage_servers_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_add_extra_storage_servers_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2014 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for
storing user home directories and data.  The design for handling this
in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is
to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on
the clients take care of the rest.  I was reminded about the need to
document this better when one of the customers of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt;, where I am
on the board of directors, asked about how to do this.  The steps to
get this working are the following:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Add new storage server in DNS.  I use nas-server.intern as the
example host here.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow
all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because
tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here.  Follow the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/GettingStarted&quot;&gt;instructions
in the manual&lt;/a&gt; (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting
started).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the
relevant subnets or machines:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server
Export list for nas-server:
/storage         10.0.0.0/8
root@tjener:~#
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the
/storage export.  With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to
netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the
NFS access.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The next step is to update LDAP.  This can not be done using GOsa²,
because it lack a module for automount.  Instead, use ldapvi and add
the required LDAP objects using an editor.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD &#39;(cn=admin)&#39; -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the
bottom of the document.  The &quot;/&amp;&quot; part in the last LDAP object is a
wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the
need to list individual mount points in LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
objectClass: automount
cn: nas-server
automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no

add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
objectClass: top
objectClass: automountMap
ou: auto.nas-server

add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
objectClass: automount
cn: /
automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/&amp;
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in
tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount
directories using mkdir and running &quot;mount -a&quot; to mount them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on
the storage server directly by just visiting the
/tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any
workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Dominik George</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Dominik_George.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Dominik_George.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 25 Dec 2013 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; consist of both newcomers and old timers, and this time I
was able to get an interview with a newcomer in the project who showed
up on the IRC channel a few weeks ago to let us know about his
successful installation of Debian Edu Wheezy in his School.  Say hello
to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ohloh.net/accounts/Natureshadow&quot;&gt;Dominik
George&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- http://www.dominik-george.de/images/foto.jpg --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a 23 year-old student from Germany who has spent half of his
life with open source. In &quot;real life&quot;, I am, as already mentioned, a
student in the fields of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
Information Technologies and Anglistics. Due to my (only partially
voluntary) huge engagement in the open source world, these things are
a bit vacant right now however.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also have been working as a project teacher at a Gymasnium
(public school) for various years now. I took up that work some time
around 2005 when still attending that school myself and have continued
it until today. I also had been running the (kind of very advanced)
network of that school together with a team of very interested and
talented students in the age of 11 to 15 years, who took the chance to
learn a lot about open source and networking before I left the school
to help building another school&#39;s informational education concept from
scratch.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That said, one might see me as a kind of &quot;glue&quot; between school kids
and the elderly of teachers as well as between the open source
ecosystem and the (even more complex) educational ecosystem.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When I am not busy with open source or education, I like Geocaching
and cycling.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think that happened some time around 2009 when I first attended
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.froscon.org&quot;&gt;FrOSCon&lt;/a&gt; and visited the project
booth. I think I wasn&#39;t too interested back then because I used to
have an attitude of disliking software that does too much stuff on its
own. Maybe I was too inexperienced to realise the upsides of an
&quot;out-of-the-box&quot; solution ;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The first time I actively talked to Skolelinux people was at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openrheinruhr.de&quot;&gt;OpenRheinRuhr&lt;/a&gt; 2011 when the
BiscuIT project, a home-grewn software used by my school for various
really cool things from timetables and class contact lists to lunch
ordering, student ID card printing and project elections first got to
a stage where it could have been published. I asked the Skolelinux
guys running the booth if the project were interested in it and gave a
small demonstration, but there wasn&#39;t any real feedback and the guys
seemed rather uninterested.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After I left the school where I developed the software, it got
mostly lost, but I am now reimplementing it for my new school. I have
reusability and compatibility in mind, and I hop there will be a new
basis for contributing it to the Skolelinux project ;)!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The most important advantage seems to be that it &quot;just
works&quot;. After overcoming some minor (but still very annoying) glitches
in the installer, I got a fully functional, working school network,
without the month-long hassle I experienced when setting all that up
from scratch in earlier years. And above that, it rocked - I didn&#39;t
have any real hardware at hand, because the school was just founded
and has no money whatsoever, so I installed a combined server (main
server, terminal services and workstation) in a VM on my personal
notebook, bridging the LTSP network interface to the ethernet port,
and then PXE-booted the Windows notebooks that were lying around from
it. I could use 8 clients without any performance issues, by using a
tiny little VM on a tiny little notebook. I think that&#39;s enough to say
that it rocks!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Secondly, there are marketing reasons. Life&#39;s bad, and so no
politician will ever permit a setup described as &quot;Debian, an universal
operating system, with some really cool educational tools&quot; while they
will be jsut fine with &quot;Skolelinux, a single-purpose solution for your
school network&quot;, even if both turn out to be the very same thing (yes,
this is unfair towards the Skolelinux project, and must not be taken
too seriously - you get the idea, anyway).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have not been involved with Skolelinux long enough to really
answer this question in a fair way. Thus, please allow me to put it in
other words: &quot;What do you expect from Skolelinux to keep liking it?&quot; I
can list a few points about that:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;always strive to get all things integrated into Debian upstream
 &lt;li&gt;be open to discussion about changes and the like, even with newcomers
 &lt;li&gt;be helpful at being helpful ;)

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m really sorry I cannot say much more about that :(!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First of all, all software I use is free and open. I have abandoned
all non-free software (except for firmware on my darned phone) this
year.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I run Debian GNU/Linux on all PC systems I use. On that, I mostly
run text tools. I use
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mirbsd.org/mksh.htm&quot;&gt;mksh&lt;/a&gt; as shell,
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm&quot;&gt;jupp&lt;/a&gt; as very advanced
text editor (I even got the developer to help me write a script/macro
based full-featured student management software with the two),
&lt;a href=&quot;http://mcabber.com/&quot;&gt;mcabber&lt;/a&gt; for XMPP and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.irssi.org/&quot;&gt;irssi&lt;/a&gt; for IRC. For that overly
coloured world called the WWW, I use
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/&quot;&gt;Iceweasel
(Firefox)&lt;/a&gt;. Oh, and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mutt.org/&quot;&gt;mutt&lt;/a&gt; for
e-mail.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;However, while I am personally aware of the fact that text tools
are more efficient and powerful than anything else, I also use (or at
least operate) some tools that are suitable to bring open source to
kids. One of these things is &lt;a href=&quot;http://jappix.org/&quot;&gt;Jappix&lt;/a&gt;,
which I already introduced to some kids even before they got aware of
Facebook, making them see for themselves that they do not need
Facebook now ;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, that&#39;s a two-sided thing. One side is what I believe, and one
side is what I have experienced.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I believe that the right strategy is showing them the benefits. But
that won&#39;t work out as long as the acceptance of free alternatives
grows globally. What I mean is that if all the kids are almost forced
to use Windows, Facebook, Skype, you name it at home, they will not
see why they would want to use alternatives at school. I have seen
students take seat in front of a fully-functional, modern Debian
desktop that could do anything their Windows at home could do, and
they jsut refused to use it because &quot;Linux sucks&quot;. It is something
that makes the council of our city spend around 600000 € to buy
software - not including hardware, mind you - for operating school
networks, and for installing a system that, as has been proved, does
not work. For those of you readers who are good at maths, have you
already found out how many lives could have been saved with that money
if we had instead used it to bring education to parts of the world
that need it? I have, and found it to be nothing less dramatic than
plain criminal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That said, the only feasible way appears to be the bottom up
method. We have to bring free software to kids and parents. I have
founded an association named
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.teckids.org&quot;&gt;Teckids&lt;/a&gt; here in Germany that does
just that. We organise several events for kids and adolescents in the
area of free and open source software, for example the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://kids.froscon.org&quot;&gt;FrogLabs&lt;/a&gt;, which share staff with
Teckids and are the youth programme of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.froscon.org&quot;&gt;the Free and Open Source Software
Conference (FrOSCon)&lt;/a&gt;. We do a lot more than most other conferences
- this year, we first offered the FrogLabs as a holiday camp for kids
aged 10 to 16. It was a huge success, with approx. 30 kids taking part
and learning with and about free software through a whole weekend. All
of us had a lot of fun, and the results were really exciting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Apart from that, we are preparing a campaign that is supposed to bring
the message of free alternatives to stuff kids use every day to them and
their parents, e.g. the use of Jabber / Jappix instead of Facebook and
Skype. To make that possible, we are planning to get together a team of
clever kids who understand very well what their peers need and can bring
it across to them. So we will have a peer-driven network of adolescents
who teach each other and collect feedback from the community of minors.
We then take that feedback and our own experience to work closely with
open source projects, such as Skolelinux or Jappix, at improving their
software in a way that makes it more and more attractive for the target
group. At least I hope that we will have good cooperation with
Skolelinux in the future ;)!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So in conclusion, what I believe is that, if it weren&#39;t for the world
being so bad, it should be very clear to the political decision makers
that the only way to go nowadays is free software for various reasons,
but I have learnt that the only way that seems to work is bottom up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--

&gt;  * Who should be interviewed with this questions in the future?

That&#39;s probably the hardest question of them all, as I do not know the
community. However, I would be willing to do the following:

 &lt;li&gt;Run an interview with a German headteacher who is very open to
   free software, and also prefers it, but cannot really use it because
   of the decision makers above;
 &lt;li&gt;Run interviews with some kids, both with and without previous
   knowledge about free software

If that is wanted, just let me know ;).

--&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Klaus_Knopper.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Klaus_Knopper.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 6 Dec 2013 09:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview,
but the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; community is still going strong, and yesterday we even
had a new school administrator show up on
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu&quot;&gt;#debian-edu&lt;/a&gt; to share
his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school.  This
time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of
Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in
Germany a few years ago.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am Klaus Knopper.  I have a master degree in electrical
engineering, and is currently professor in information management at
the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and
freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart
from teaching, I&#39;m also conducting some more or less experimental
projects like the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.knoppix.org&quot;&gt;Knoppix GNU/Linux live
system&lt;/a&gt; (Debian-based like Skolelinux),
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-adriane/index-en.html&quot;&gt;ADRIANE&lt;/a&gt;
(a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.knopper.net/linbo/index-en.html&quot;&gt;LINBO&lt;/a&gt;
(Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair
system supporting various operating systems).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German
coordinator for Skolelinux.  We were looking for an all-in-one open
source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt
introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Quick installation,&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;works (almost) out of the box,&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;contains many useful software packages for teaching and learning,&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;is a purely community-based distro and not controlled by a
    single company,&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;has a large number of supporters and teachers who share their
    experience and problem solutions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Skolelinux is - as we had to learn - not easily upgradable to
  the next version.  Opposed to its genuine Debian base, upgrading to
  a new version means a full new installation from scratch to get it
  working again reliably.

  &lt;li&gt;Skolelinux is based on Debian/stable, and therefore always a
  little outdated in terms of program versions compared to Edubuntu or
  similar educational Linux distros, which rather use Debian/testing
  as their base.

  &lt;li&gt;Skolelinux has some very self-opinionated and stubborn default
  configuration which in my opinion adds unnecessary complexity and is
  not always suitable for a schools needs, the preset network
  configuration is actually a core definition feature of Skolelinux
  and not easy to change, so schools sometimes have to change their
  network configuration to make it &quot;Skolelinux-compatible&quot;.

  &lt;li&gt;Some proposed extensions, which were made available as
  contribution, like secure examination mode and lecture material
  distribution and collection, were not accepted into the mainline
  Skolelinux development and are now not easy to maintain in the
  future because of Skolelinux somewhat undeterministic update
  schemes.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Skolelinux has only a very tiny number of base developers
  compared to Debian.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now
rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until
Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes
upgradeable without reinstallation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and
programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence,
occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various
programming languages for teaching.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Strong arguments are&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Knowledge is free, and so should be methods and tools for
    teaching and learning.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Students can learn with and use the same software at school, at
    home, and at their working place without running into license or
    conversion problems.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Closed source or proprietary software hides knowledge rather
    than exposing it, and proprietary software vendors try to bind
    customers to certain products.  But teachers need to teach
    science, not products.&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;If you have everything you for daily work as open source, what
    would you need proprietary software for?&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 8 Oct 2013 17:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
Salvador had published a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc&quot;&gt;video on
Youtube&lt;/a&gt; showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
Skolelinux profile.  This is the profile intended for use at home or
on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
in other word a single user machine).  The result is 11 minutes long,
and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
showing the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.zygotebody.com/&quot;&gt;Zygote Body 3D model
of the human body&lt;/a&gt;, but I guess he did not know about those or find
other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
computers without hard drives by installing one central
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ltsp.org/&quot;&gt;LTSP server&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;iframe width=&quot;420&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux?  Please let
me know. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Finally, Debian Edu Wheezy is released today!</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Finally__Debian_Edu_Wheezy_is_released_today_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 29 Sep 2013 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A few hours ago, the announcement for the first stable release of
Debian Edu Wheezy went out from the Debian publicity team.  The
complete announcement text can be found at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130928&quot;&gt;the Debian News
section&lt;/a&gt;, translated to several languages.  Please check it out.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is one minor known problem that we will fix very soon.  One
can not install a amd64 Thin Client Server using PXE, as the /var/
partition is too small.  A workaround is to extend the partition (use
lvresize + resize2fs in tty 2 while installing).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Third and probably last beta release of Debian Edu Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_and_probably_last_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_and_probably_last_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 16 Sep 2013 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The third wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
today.  This is the release announcement from Holger Levsen:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hi,&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;it is my pleasure to announce the third beta release (beta 2 for
short) of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based on Debian Wheezy!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Please test these images extensivly, if no new problems are found
we plan to do this final Debian Edu Wheezy release this coming
weekend.  We are not aware of any major problems or blockers in beta2,
if you find something, please notify us immediately!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(More about the remaining steps for the Edu Wheezy release in
another mail to the edu list tonight or tomorrow...)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Noteworthy changes and software updates for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b2
compared to beta1:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The KDE proxy setup has been adjusted to use the provided wpad.dat. This
also gets Chromium to use this proxy.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Install kdepim-groupware with KDE desktops to make sure korganizer
understand ical/dav sources.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased default maximum size of /var/spool/squid and /skole/backup on the
main server.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A source DVD image containing all source packages is now available as well.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Updates for chromium (29.0.1547.57-1~deb7u1), imagemagick
(6.7.7.10-5+deb7u2), php5 (5.4.4-14+deb7u4), libmodplug
(0.8.8.4-3+deb7u1+git20130828), tiff (4.0.2-6+deb7u2), linux-image
(3.2.0-4-486_3.2.46-1+deb7u1).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Where to get it:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is:  3a1c89f4666df80eebcd46c5bf5fedb866f9472f&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 702d1718548f401c74bfa6df9f032cc3ee16597e&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Source DVD image has the filename
debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b2-source-DVD.iso and the SHA1SUM
089eed8b3f962db47aae1f6a9685e9bb2fa30ca5 and is available the same way
as the other isos.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For information how to report bugs please see
&lt;br&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;


&lt;p&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
configured school network. Immediately after installation a school
server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the seventh test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Notes for upgrades from Alpha Prereleases&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined on the mailing list. (2)
Accept the new version of gosa.conf and replace both contained admin
password placeholders with the password hashes found in the old one
(backup copy!). In both cases all users need to change their password
to make sure a password is set for CIFS access to their home
directory.&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;cheers,
&lt;br&gt;        Holger&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Second beta release (beta 1) of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_release__beta_1__of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_release__beta_1__of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows
integration fixes .  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
the main server from CD or USB stick all other machines can be
installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
desktop contains
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the sixth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically this
is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the Squeeze
release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/08/msg00127.html&quot;&gt;on
the mailing list&lt;/a&gt;. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and
replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password
hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user
need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for
CIFS access to their home directory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh
    work also without a attached tty.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to
    make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line
    tools. Please note, that the command &#39;update-command-not-found&#39;
    has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access
    required).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool
needed for desktop=xfce installations.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB
stick ISO image.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens
    during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to
    cope with this.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa².&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid
    empty password hashes.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the
    smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines
    from joining the Samba domain.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
    not use the http proxy as it should.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop
    (using the KDE configuration).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 27 Jul 2013 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released
2013-07-27&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
desktop contains
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager
   for network configuration, as wicd didn&#39;t work any more.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser
   packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced
   by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those
   installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa
   and libpam-mklocaluser.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of
   crash bugs.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break
   desktop=gnome installations.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the
   netinst CD.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific
   setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at
   install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash
   with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient
   exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host
   name setting at run time to work again.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL
   fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by
   updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique
   (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Grub is missing the new artwork.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
    not use the http proxy as it should.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Chromium also fail to use the proxy.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 9 Jul 2013 10:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
party in Oslo.  It is organised by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;the
member assosiation NUUG&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; together with &lt;a href=&quot;http://bitraf.no/&quot;&gt;the hack space
Bitraf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
on &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo&quot;&gt;the event
wiki page&lt;/a&gt; if you plan to join us.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 3 Jul 2013 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
2013-07-03&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
desktop contains
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
    submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
    brings KDE in line with the others.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
    they don&#39;t have a desktop menu entry and thus won&#39;t show up in the
    menu now that menu-xdg was removed.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
    multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
    X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
    too.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
    are too few to make the package useful.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
  &lt;li&gt;Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
    up for some language options.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
    d-i is doing it.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
    debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
    script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
    Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Update system to install needed firmware packages during
    installation, to work properly in Wheezy.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
    and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
    work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
    available yet (698840).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Artwork not enabled for all desktops.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &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;
  &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;
  &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &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;
  &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;
  &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>The value of a good distro wide test suite...</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 22 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; project, we include a post-installation test suite,
which check that services are running, working, and return the
expected results.  It runs automatically just after the first boot on
test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
installations (using non-test ISOs).  It test that the LDAP service is
operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
online resizable, etc, etc.  And it check that the PXE service is
configured, which is the topic of this post.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The last week I&#39;ve fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
Edu Wheezy release.  These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
happen all the needed packages need to be on them.  Thanks to our test
suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
working packages to get it working.  And the packages changed name
from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
packages during installation.  Without our test suite, I suspect we
would never have discovered this before release.  Now it is fixed
right after we got the ISOs operational.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
test suite using &lt;tt&gt;/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install&lt;/tt&gt; and see if
any errors are detected.  This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
the problem.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
please join us on
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;#debian-edu on
irc.debian.org&lt;/a&gt; and the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/&quot;&gt;debian-edu@&lt;/a&gt; mailing
list.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; distribution have users and contributors all around the
globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;our IRC channel
#debian-edu&lt;/a&gt; and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
with him, to learn more about him.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year&#39;s Eve
party, I had a very nice &lt;strike&gt;beer&lt;/strike&gt; discussion with a
friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
field.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
of &lt;a href=&quot;http://ceata.org/&quot;&gt;Fundația Ceata&lt;/a&gt;, which is a free
software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
the only one we have in our country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
ways to contribute.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
haven&#39;t fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
software in my country is pretty low, I&#39;ll be happy to be the first
one around here advocating for the project&#39;s adoption in educational
environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
from now on, time will tell what I&#39;ll be doing next, but I think I
have a pretty consistent starting point.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
it comes to managing a school&#39;s network, for example.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
scenarios is something I can&#39;t wait to experiment &quot;into the wild&quot; (I
only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
lot more I haven&#39;t discovered yet about it, being so new within the
project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I&#39;d like to see
Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project&#39;s dynamics. Not
to mention it&#39;s a very fun blend to work on!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
to all blends and derivatives, but it&#39;s an issue we can all work
on.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
Enlightenment project a lot!),
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.claws-mail.org/‎&quot;&gt;Claws Mail&lt;/a&gt; due to its ease of
use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
&lt;a href=&quot;https://launchpad.net/redshift&quot;&gt;Redshift&lt;/a&gt;, which helps me
get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
stuff in this bag, but I&#39;ll need a blog on my own for doing this!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
that:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;schools would like to get rid of proprietary software&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
    experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
    of teenagers more?&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;there is no &quot;right one&quot; when it comes to strategies, but it would
    be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
    other can get some inspiration from them (I know I&#39;d promote
    them!)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
    lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
    person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
very hard to convert against their will.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;There is a certain cross-over between the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.edubuntu.org/&quot;&gt;the Edubuntu
project&lt;/a&gt;, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
effort between the projects.  One person with a foot in both camps is
Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
days vary quite a bit since I&#39;m involved in too many things. As I&#39;m
getting older I&#39;m learning how to focus a bit more :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
each other.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
[Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
day I have a big todo list backlog that I&#39;m catching up with. I think
over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
been gradually improving, although I think there&#39;s a lot that we could
still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I&#39;m sure
we&#39;ll get there one day.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
it for pages, but in essence I love that it&#39;s a very honest project
that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
very high quality work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
helps to standardise installations in schools so that it&#39;s easier for
community members and commercial suppliers to support.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I had to re-type this one a few times because I&#39;m trying to
separate &quot;disadvantages&quot; from &quot;areas that need improvement&quot; (which is
what I originally rambled on about)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
on. When you&#39;ve been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I&#39;d love to be one
myself but I&#39;m already so over-committed that it&#39;s just not possible
currently.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
their skills in-house. I&#39;m often saddened to see how much money
educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don&#39;t
have access to after the service has ended and they could&#39;ve gotten so
much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
autonomous.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
so I suppose I&#39;ll soon be able to regain that disk space :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I&#39;ve been torn on
which desktop environment I like and I&#39;m taking some refuge in Xfce
while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
X.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
using Norton Commander in the early 90&#39;s and it stuck (I think the
people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don&#39;t know how to use
it :p)

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
many cases it&#39;s appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
don&#39;t think that there&#39;s any particular moral or ethical problem with
that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
problems in educational institutions and it&#39;s just a shame not taking
advantage of that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
general concepts. I think that&#39;s very unproductive because firstly, MS
Office&#39;s interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
best solution for them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
make a decision that would work for them.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
2013-06-10&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
alpha2, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
desktop contains
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html&quot;&gt;more
than 60 educational software packages&lt;/a&gt; and more are available from
the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
and Xfce desktop environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1) 
&lt;li&gt;Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703). 
&lt;li&gt;Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4. 
&lt;li&gt;Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default. 
&lt;li&gt;Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default. 

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used. 
&lt;li&gt;Updated translation of the installation. 
&lt;li&gt;New Romanian translation. 
&lt;li&gt;Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat. 
&lt;li&gt;Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
&lt;li&gt;Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments. 
&lt;li&gt;New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile. 
&lt;li&gt;Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS. 
&lt;li&gt;More testsuite tests. 
&lt;li&gt;Make automatic proxy configuration more robust. 
&lt;li&gt;Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration. 

&lt;li&gt;Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
LTSP in Wheezy.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
them up with GOsa².&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Update IMAP server setup. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
entered password). &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
missing import feature).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
unfixed.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178 
&lt;br&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Is there a PHP expert in the building?  Debian Edu need help!</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 5 Jun 2013 17:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
hope to get released soon.  The two problems require some with PHP
skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
the project:

&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
  (slbackup-php) using the root user and password.  This is
  &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/700257&quot;&gt;BTS report #700257&lt;/a&gt;.
  This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
  Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It is not possible to &quot;mass import&quot; user lists in Gosa, neither
  using ldif nor using CSV files.  The feature was disabled after a
  major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
  This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/698840&quot;&gt;BTS report
  #698840&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you can help us, please join us on IRC
(&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;#debian-edu on
irc.debian.org&lt;/a&gt;) and provide patches via the BTS.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It has been a while since my last English
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
in the project, Cédric Boutillier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
packaging, publicity and translation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals&quot;&gt;the
Debian Edu manual&lt;/a&gt; for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
manual.

&lt;p&gt;I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
by &lt;a href=&quot;https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/&quot;&gt;GOsa²&lt;/a&gt;.  What pleased
me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
there were many &quot;traditional&quot; educative software to learn languages,
to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
artistic skills with music (&lt;a href=&quot;http://ardour.org/&quot;&gt;Ardour&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://audacity.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;Audacity&lt;/a&gt;) and
movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;Stopmotion&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;#debian-edu&lt;/a&gt;.
Unfortunately, I don&#39;t much time to get more involved in this
beautiful project.&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
fact that it provides a solution ready to use.&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
of educational free software.&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One can find support from a company by looking at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp&quot;&gt;the
wiki dokumentation&lt;/a&gt;, where some countries already have a number of
companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
support for Debian Edu as well.&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
also using the mathematical software
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎&quot;&gt;Scilab&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎&quot;&gt;Sage&lt;/a&gt; (built from
source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
statistics?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I do not have any &quot;nice&quot; recommendations for statistics. At our
university, we use both &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.r-project.org/‎&quot;&gt;R&lt;/a&gt; and
Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
geometry, there are nice programs:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drgeo.eu/&quot;&gt;drgeo&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎&quot;&gt;kig&lt;/a&gt; to do
constructions in planar geometry

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html&quot;&gt;kali&lt;/a&gt;
to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
groups), although the interface looks a bit old.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I like also
&lt;a href=&quot;http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor&quot;&gt;cantor&lt;/a&gt;, which
provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎&quot;&gt;Octave&lt;/a&gt;, etc...&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My suggestions would be to&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
    well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
    OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;advertise the living and strong community around the project.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
    system.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Educational applications included in Debian Edu / Skolelinux (the screenshot collection :-)</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 1 Jun 2013 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Included in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, there are quite a lot of educational software.
Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn.  We have tried to
tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
debtag field.  Here it is.  Click on a image to learn more about the
program.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- for f in $(debtags tagcat|grep field::|awk &#39;{print $2}&#39;); do   echo; echo &quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;$f&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&quot;; echo &quot;&lt;p&gt;&quot;;   (     for p in $(debtags search --names &quot;use::learning &amp;&amp; interface::x11 &amp;&amp; role::program &amp;&amp; $f&quot;); do img=&quot;&lt;img src=&#39;http://screenshots.debian.net/thumbnail/$p&#39; alt=&#39;$p&#39;&gt;&quot;; if dpkg -s $p &gt; /dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1; then           echo &quot;&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.qa.debian.org/$p&#39;&gt;$img&lt;/a&gt;&quot;; fi;     done;   ) | LANG=C sort; echo &quot;&lt;/p&gt;&quot;; done --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::arts&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=audacity&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/audacity.png&#39; alt=&#39;audacity&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png&#39; alt=&#39;childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=denemo&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/denemo.png&#39; alt=&#39;denemo&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=freebirth&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/freebirth.png&#39; alt=&#39;freebirth&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gimp&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gimp.png&#39; alt=&#39;gimp&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=hydrogen&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/hydrogen.png&#39; alt=&#39;hydrogen&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=lilypond&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lilypond.png&#39; alt=&#39;lilypond&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=lmms&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lmms.png&#39; alt=&#39;lmms&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=rosegarden&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rosegarden.png&#39; alt=&#39;rosegarden&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=scribus&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scribus.png&#39; alt=&#39;scribus&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=solfege&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/solfege.png&#39; alt=&#39;solfege&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=stopmotion&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stopmotion.png&#39; alt=&#39;stopmotion&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=tuxpaint&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxpaint.png&#39; alt=&#39;tuxpaint&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::astronomy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=celestia-gnome&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/celestia-gnome.png&#39; alt=&#39;celestia-gnome&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gpredict&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gpredict.png&#39; alt=&#39;gpredict&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kstars&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kstars.png&#39; alt=&#39;kstars&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=planets&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/planets.png&#39; alt=&#39;planets&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=stellarium&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stellarium.png&#39; alt=&#39;stellarium&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=xplanet&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png&#39; alt=&#39;xplanet&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::biology:structural&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=pymol&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png&#39; alt=&#39;pymol&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::chemistry&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=atomix&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/atomix.png&#39; alt=&#39;atomix&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=chemtool&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/chemtool.png&#39; alt=&#39;chemtool&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=easychem&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/easychem.png&#39; alt=&#39;easychem&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gchempaint&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gchempaint.png&#39; alt=&#39;gchempaint&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gdis&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gdis.png&#39; alt=&#39;gdis&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=ghemical&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ghemical.png&#39; alt=&#39;ghemical&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gperiodic&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gperiodic.png&#39; alt=&#39;gperiodic&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kalzium&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalzium.png&#39; alt=&#39;kalzium&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=pymol&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png&#39; alt=&#39;pymol&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=viewmol&#39;&gt;[viewmol]&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=xdrawchem&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xdrawchem.png&#39; alt=&#39;xdrawchem&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::electronics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gpsim&#39;&gt;[gpsim]&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::geography&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kgeography&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kgeography.png&#39; alt=&#39;kgeography&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=marble&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/marble.png&#39; alt=&#39;marble&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=xplanet&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png&#39; alt=&#39;xplanet&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::linguistics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kanagram&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kanagram.png&#39; alt=&#39;kanagram&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=khangman&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/khangman.png&#39; alt=&#39;khangman&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=klettres&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/klettres.png&#39; alt=&#39;klettres&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=parley&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/parley.png&#39; alt=&#39;parley&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::mathematics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png&#39; alt=&#39;childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=drgeo&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/drgeo.png&#39; alt=&#39;drgeo&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=geogebra&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/geogebra.png&#39; alt=&#39;geogebra&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=geomview&#39;&gt;[geomview]&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=grace&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/grace.png&#39; alt=&#39;grace&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=graphmonkey&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphmonkey.png&#39; alt=&#39;graphmonkey&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=graphthing&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphthing.png&#39; alt=&#39;graphthing&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kalgebra&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalgebra.png&#39; alt=&#39;kalgebra&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kbruch&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kbruch.png&#39; alt=&#39;kbruch&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kig&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kig.png&#39; alt=&#39;kig&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=kmplot&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kmplot.png&#39; alt=&#39;kmplot&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=mathwar&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/mathwar.png&#39; alt=&#39;mathwar&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=rocs&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rocs.png&#39; alt=&#39;rocs&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=scratch&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png&#39; alt=&#39;scratch&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=tuxmath&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxmath.png&#39; alt=&#39;tuxmath&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=xabacus&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xabacus.png&#39; alt=&#39;xabacus&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::physics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=step&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/step.png&#39; alt=&#39;step&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;field::TODO&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=blinken&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/blinken.png&#39; alt=&#39;blinken&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=cgoban&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/cgoban.png&#39; alt=&#39;cgoban&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png&#39; alt=&#39;childsplay&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png&#39; alt=&#39;gcompris&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gnuchess&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnuchess.png&#39; alt=&#39;gnuchess&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gnugo&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnugo.png&#39; alt=&#39;gnugo&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=gtans&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gtans.png&#39; alt=&#39;gtans&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=ktouch&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ktouch.png&#39; alt=&#39;ktouch&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=librecad&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/librecad.png&#39; alt=&#39;librecad&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&#39;http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&amp;exact=1&amp;suite=all&amp;section=all&amp;keywords=scratch&#39;&gt;&lt;img src=&#39;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png&#39; alt=&#39;scratch&#39;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In total, 61 applications.  3 of them lacked screen shots on
&lt;a href=&quot;http://screenshot.debian.net&quot;&gt;screenshot.debian.net&lt;/a&gt;.  If
you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
know on &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;IRC, #debian-edu
on irc.debian.org&lt;/a&gt;, or our
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/&quot;&gt;mailing list
debian-edu@&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Nirosan Thiyagalingam</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Nirosan_Thiyagalingam.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Nirosan_Thiyagalingam.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 21:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;En ting
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux-prosjektet&lt;/a&gt; har
hatt mye glede av er studentprosjekter.  F.eks.  er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxstopmotion.org/&quot;&gt;stillbildeanimasjonssystemet
Stopmotion&lt;/a&gt; resultat av et studentprosjekt i Skolelinux.  De siste
månedene har en ivrig student veiledet av Marius Kotsbak i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRiSK&lt;/a&gt; testet hva en
kan få til med en datamaskin til NOK 400,- (antagelig 1700,- med
skjerm, tastatur og mus) når det brukes i Skolelinux.  Jeg spurte han
om et intervju.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Nirosan Thiyagalingam. Jeg er 24 år og studerer
dataingeniør studiet ved Høgskolen i Sør Trøndelag. Interessen for
data har siden ung alder vært tilstede og jeg har i tillegg alltid
vært glad i å lære nye ting. Med teknologi som endres svært hurtig er
det alltid noe nytt å lære.  Noe som igjen har gjort det svært
interessant å følge med på utviklingen.  Jeg valgte dataingeniør
studiet grunnet ønske om å lære enda mer om programmering og utvikling
av store systemer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux prosjektet hørte jeg først om i media. Men det var først
når jeg skulle velge bacheloroppgave at jeg fattet mer interesse for
prosjektet. Et enkelt søk på nettet førte meg til skolelinux sine
hjemmesider.  Informasjonen jeg fant der gjorde meg enda nysgjerrig og
jeg valgte derfor en oppgave som gikk ut på å få en
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.raspberrypi.org&quot;&gt;Raspberry PI&lt;/a&gt;.  Altså en
ultra-billig datamaskin til å kjøre Debian Edu på lik linje med
vanlige datamaskiner. I løpet av prosjektet ble det gjort mye
forskning på nettet. Det var mye jeg måtte forstå rundt hvordan
operativsystemet Linux fungerte før jeg kunne angripe
problemet. Prøvde først å finne ut hvordan man kunne transformere en
vanlig installasjon av Skolelinux til Raspberry PI, men dette var
altfor vanskelig å jeg endte opp med mer spørsmål enn svar. Det ble
videre opprettet kontakt med Skolelinux utviklere på IRC der jeg fikk
diskutert hvilken retning jeg burde gå for å få til en fullverdig
løsning. Det ble bestemt at jeg skulle gå for å først installere
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.raspbian.org/&quot;&gt;Raspian&lt;/a&gt;. Dette er et
operativsystem basert på Debian spesiallaget for Raspberry Pi sin
maskinvare. Nå som Debian var installert på datamaskinen gjenstod det
å installere de nødvendige Skolelinux pakkene for å få til et
fullverdig system. Disse pakkene ble installert manuelt i første
omgang, men ble senere installert automatisk via et script som Petter
Reinholdtsen laget. Dette scriptet er så enkel å bruke at man er i
gang med installasjonen i løpet av bare 5 minutter. Ikke nok med det,
alt skjer helt automatisk. Alt i alt er jeg veldig fornøyd med
resultatet av installasjonsprosessen. Raspberry Pi er en veldig svak
maskin og det merkes godt når man har installert Skolelinux på
den. Video og 3D-rendering fungerer utrolig dårlig, men nettsurfing og
kontorprogrammer fungerer godt.  Det kan derfor konkluderes med at
datamaskinen er egnet for enkle oppgaver.

&lt;p&gt;Jeg syns det er viktig påpeke at dette kun er startfasen av en slik
løsning. På markedet finnes det nå maskiner som har bedre hardware enn
Raspberry Pi. Det er store muligheter for at man kan klare å
installere Skolelinux på disse også, og da forsvinner nok mest
sannsynlig ytelsesproblemene med Video og 3D rendering også.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det ble også prøvd med en løsning som gjorde at Raspberry Pi
fungerte som en tynnklient. Denne løsningen hadde langt bedre ytelse
med tanke på hastighet og brukeropplevelse. Men også her var video og
3D rendering dårlig. Det ble brukt en liten Linux distribusjon kalt
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.berryterminal.com/&quot;&gt;BerryTerminal&lt;/a&gt; for å få til
dette.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelen med Skolelinux er mange. At det er gratis er en stor
fordel, men at det er så mange som er med på å utvikle det og
vedlikeholde det er en enda større fordel. Allerede før jeg startet
med prosjektet så jeg mange fordeler, og når jeg nærmet meg sluttfasen
så jeg langt flere. At prosjektet skulle inneha en så høy kvalitet
hadde jeg aldri trodd. En vanlig Skolelinux installasjon har de
nødvendige programmene og funksjonen som både små og store skoler i
tillegg til organisasjoner kan klare seg med.  At prosjektet tilbyr en
så komplett løsning er en kjempefordel.  Installasjonen er knirkefri
og det er svært enkelt å installere og komme i gang.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ulempene jeg ser med prosjektet er ryddigheten av websidene. Selv
om websidene er enkle og konsise er det allikevel ikke appellerende i
like stor grad som for eksempel
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ubuntu.com&quot;&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; sine sider.  Deres side
tilbyr, i tillegg til godt design og presentasjon, en nettbasert
emulator av deres operativsystem. Dette er en stor fordel slik jeg ser
det.  Bortsett fra dette ser jeg absolutt ingen ulemper med
Skolelinux-prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Til daglig er jeg en flittig bruker av det åpne media
sentersystemet &lt;a href=&quot;http://xbmc.org/&quot;&gt;XBMC&lt;/a&gt;. Det enorme
samfunnet rundt dette prosjektet har gjort dette til et program som
dekker alles behov. Man kan tilpasse det akkurat slik man vil både med
tanke på utseende og funksjoner ved installere plug-ins eller
scripts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Strategien som burde brukes sett fra mine øyne er
markedsføring. Jeg er sikker på at om flere skoler fikk et lite innsyn
i hvor bra Skolelinux er så ville de ikke nølt med å gå over fra noe
annet som koster de store summer. At skolelinux til de grader tilbyr
en så komplett løsning bure komme frem. Enten via reklamekampanjer
eller ved å sende ut folk til skoler for så å la skolenettverk
ansvarlige få teste ut hvordan Skolelinux fungerer i praksis. Om det
i tillegg ble utviklet gode websider og en emulator for å la brukere
prøve operativsystemet ville nok dette ha styrket inntrykket
betraktelig.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; is
an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;please
donate some money&lt;/a&gt;.

&lt;p&gt;A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn&#39;t very
hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
the Debian Edu installer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup&quot;&gt;debian-edu-bless&lt;a/&gt;
in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
into a Debian Edu Workstation:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Add skolelinux related APT sources.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
    our configuration.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
    /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
    according to the profile specified in the config above,
    overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
    that could not be done using preseeding.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
the needed packages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
setting up &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.raspberrypi.org&quot;&gt;Raspberry Pi&lt;/a&gt; as a
Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎&quot;&gt;Raspbian&lt;/a&gt; installation and
transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
PROFILE=&quot;Roaming-Workstation&quot;
DESKTOP=&quot;lxde&quot;
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
boot.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Second alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux
project&lt;/a&gt; is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
release today.  This is the release announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
2013-05-14&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
alpha1, based on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt; with
codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
other machines can be installed via the network.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
version compared to the Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
    default.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
    ibus-anthy.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
    reliability improvements.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
    of &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/706434&quot;&gt;706434&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
    problems.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
    direct:// URL.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
    servers, to make room for all the software installed.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
    log in (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/706753&quot;&gt;706753&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Known issues&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
    (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/705900&quot;&gt;705900&lt;/a&gt;).  Only install
    libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;DVD images are not yet ready.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
    available yet (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/698840&quot;&gt;698840&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
    (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
    password submission problem
    (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/700257&quot;&gt;700257&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Narvik sparer minst 9 millioner på å bruke Skolelinux</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Narvik_sparer_minst_9_millioner_p____bruke_Skolelinux.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Narvik_sparer_minst_9_millioner_p____bruke_Skolelinux.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 18:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I fjor sommer ble jeg
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gladoppslag_om_Skolelinux_i_avisen_Fremover.html&quot;&gt;gledelig
overrasket&lt;/a&gt; over et oppslag i avisen Fremover om Narvik kommunes
bruk av &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  Oppslaget
var basert på et notat som besvarte spørsmål fra ordfører Tor Nysæter
og rådgiver for skolesektoren, Petter Falkbu, om bruken av Skolelinux
i Narvikskolene og konstnaden ved å gå over til Windows.  For litt
over en uke siden siden fikk jeg endelig bedt kommunen om å få innsyn
i dette notatet, og det ble oversendt på epost tirsdag.  Jeg fikk
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/pub/offentliginnsyn/from-Narvik-kommune/2013-04-29-09:12-skolelinux-notat/PetterFalkbuogwindowsfornarvikskolen%20(L)351310.pdf&quot;&gt;lagt
ut notatet&lt;/a&gt; samme dag, og fikk i dag sjekket postlista til Narvik,
der jeg fant notatet som
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.narvik.kommune.no/innsyn.aspx?response=arkivsak_detaljer&amp;arkivsakid=2013001023&amp;scripturi=/innsyn.aspx&amp;skin=infolink&amp;Mid1=301&amp;&quot;&gt;sak
2013/1023&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Notatet forteller at Narvik ville måtte betalt minst 9 millioner
for å gå over til Windows på skolene.  I tillegg dokumenterer notatet
at læreplanens krav oppfylles uten problemer ved bruk av Skolelinux.
Jeg anbefaler alle å lese de 10 sidene med gode argumenter for å kutte
unødige utgifter på IT i skoleverket. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 5 May 2013 07:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504&quot;&gt;release announcement
for Debian Wheezy&lt;/a&gt; was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
soon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
&lt;a href=&quot;http://scratch.mit.edu/&quot;&gt;Scratch&lt;/a&gt; program, made famous by
the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.code.org/&quot;&gt;Teach kids code&lt;/a&gt; movement, is
included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
&lt;a href=&quot;http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/&quot;&gt;kturtle&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art&quot;&gt;turtleart&lt;/a&gt;,
it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
Edu.&lt;/a&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html&quot;&gt;first
alpha release&lt;/a&gt; went out last week, and the next should soon
follow.&lt;p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made
its first Wheezy based release today.  This is the release
announcement:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released
2013-04-26&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0
edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename &quot;Wheezy&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu, also known as
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all
services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
installed via the network.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
version compared to the Squeeze release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Software updates&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg:
  &lt;ul&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Linux kernel 3.2.x&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Desktop environments KDE &quot;Plasma&quot; 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4
         (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see
         manual.)&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;LibreOffice 3.5.4&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;LTSP 5.4.2&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;GOsa 2.7.4&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;CUPS print system 1.5.3&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Music creator Rosegarden 12.04&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Image editor Gimp 2.8.2&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see
         &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual&quot;&gt;installation
         manual&lt;/a&gt; for more details.&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for
         installation.&lt;/li&gt;
     &lt;li&gt;More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the
         &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/releasenotes&quot;&gt;release notes&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual&quot;&gt;installation manual&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Documentation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The (&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy&quot;&gt;English&lt;/a&gt;) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to
    German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist
    for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;Strong&gt;LDAP related changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to
    choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type
    server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
    
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other changes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be
    configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an
    entry in lts.conf or LDAP.&lt;li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non
    functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are
    completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
    
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Regressions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available
    yet.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
    
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No updated artwork&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login
    screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we
    had for our Squeeze based release.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
    
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to get it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2&lt;/p&gt;
  
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to report bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&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;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First Debian Edu / Skolelinux developer gathering in 2013 take place in Trondheim</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This years first &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux /
Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim.
Details about the gathering can be found
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim&quot;&gt;on
the FRiSK wiki&lt;/a&gt;.  The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online
participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome,
and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this
weekend.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project
infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian
Edu release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;See you on &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu&quot;&gt;IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,&lt;/a&gt; then?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux 6 got a video review from Pcwizz</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Via
&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930&quot;&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt;
I just discovered that &lt;a href=&quot;http://pcwizz.net/&quot;&gt;Pcwizz&lt;/a&gt; have
done a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc&quot;&gt;video
review&lt;/a&gt; on Youtube of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
/ Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
a few programs and his view of our distribution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&quot;Basically everything you ever need in a school environment.&quot;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&quot;So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network.&quot;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&quot;[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
actually don&#39;t need in the education distribution, but have just been
included because it isn&#39;t stripped out for some reason.&quot;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries&quot;&gt;one
consistent menu system&lt;/a&gt; instead of two incomplete and partly
inconsistent menu systems.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
embedding:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;iframe width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 8 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;
based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
initial release 2012-03-11&lt;/a&gt;.  This is the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;release
announcement email from Holger&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hi,&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;it&#39;s my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
Edu 6.0.7+r1 (&quot;Debian Edu Squeeze&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311&lt;/a&gt;
for more information on &quot;Debian Edu Squeeze&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Images are available for download at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;md5sums:
&lt;br&gt;1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
&lt;br&gt;a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
&lt;br&gt;ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;sha1sums:
&lt;br&gt;a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
&lt;br&gt;9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
&lt;br&gt;43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These images are suitable for amd64+i386.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename &quot;Squeeze&quot;, released
2013-03-03:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
  &lt;ul&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Comply with 3.X kernel&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
  &lt;ul&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Minor updates from the wiki&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Danish translation now complete&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
     &lt;ul&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Correct Kerberos user policy: don&#39;t expire password after 2 days.
                Closes: #664596&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Handle &#39;#&#39; characters in the root or first users password.
                Closes: #664976&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Fixes for gosa-sync:
           &lt;ul&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t fail if password contains &quot;&lt;/li&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t disclose new password string in syslog&lt;/li&gt;
           &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Fixes for gosa-create:
           &lt;ul&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes&lt;/li&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²&lt;/li&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;gosa-netgroups plugin: don&#39;t erase entries of attribute type
                         &quot;memberNisNetgroup&quot;. Closes: #687256&lt;/li&gt;
                &lt;li&gt;First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users&lt;/li&gt;
           &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Add Danish web page&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
    &lt;ul&gt;
        &lt;li&gt;Improve preseeding support and documentation&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
        
&lt;p&gt;End-user documentation in English is available at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/&lt;/a&gt;
- translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
mailinglist
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/&quot;&gt;debian-edu@lists.debian.org&lt;/a&gt;!
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Helge Tore Høyland</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Helge_Tore_H_yland.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Helge_Tore_H_yland.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Etter en lang pause og travle uker har jeg endelig klart å få
samlet et nytt intervju med en av folkene i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet.
Denne gang er det Helge Tore Høyland, en mangeårig bidragsyter på
epostlistene og ellers i prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eg er IT-konsulent/teknikker hjå eit firma i Steinkjer med navn
&lt;a href=&quot;http://unoit.no/&quot;&gt;Uno IT&lt;/a&gt;.  Uno IT er eit lite firma som
drifter nettverk og maskiner for små og mellomstore firma
Steinkjer-området. Per dags dato er me 2 ansatte. Min faglege bakgrunn
er Fagbrev som it-teknikker, samt nokre fag innen nettverk- og
server-drift frå HiST og NTNU. Dagleg arbeid består i oppsett av nye
maskiner og hjelp til sluttbrukere, samt oppsett og vedlikehold av eit
vidt spekter av fagsystemer ute hjå kunder. Erfaring med Skolelinux
har eg hatt i forbindelse med drifting av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bjorkly.no/&quot;&gt;Bjørkly skule&lt;/a&gt;, ein privat
grunnskule i Namsos-området.  I dag har skulen 65 elever, 15 lærere, 1
hovedserver og ca 60 klienter som kjører halvtjukt.  Eg har bygd og
driftet systemet sidan summaren 2006.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eg kom i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet via ein artikkel i eit
fagblad, som eg ikkje lenger hugsar namnet på.  I og med at eg allereie
hadde pusla med nettverk for ein annan skule, fatta eg straks
interesse for prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelane med Skolelinux er sentralisert administrasjon og svært
mange gode verktøy «ut av boksen». Veldig kjekt å kunne drifte 60
klientar med berre å «bry» seg med ein server. Levetid for systemets
hardware er og ein veldig fin effekt. I tillegg kjem fordelar som økt
sikkerhet og mindre lisenskostnader. Etter min erfaring er det og
mykje mindre driftskostnader med eit slikt system enn konkurrerande
system, pga enkelhet med sentralisert administrasjon. På grunn av at
Skolelinux er basert på Debian er det òg svært stabilt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ulemper er mangel på vilje til å følge standarer ute i markedet,
som fører til mangel på støtte til nokre mykje brukte ting. Flash og
Java er typiske eksempel. Sidan Debian satsar på stabilitet framfor å
ha nyeste pakke av eit program, kan ein i nokre tilfeller kome borti
at program vert «for gamle». Det er spesielt nettlesaren som er
utsett. Mangel på vilje til å utvikle pedagogisk programvare, i Noreg,
for «alle» platformer fører òg til noko hovudbry.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Til dagleg bruker eg svært mange forskjellige «fri programvare»
program.  Firefox, Thunderbird, Freecommander, ImgBurn, Clonezilla,
OCS inventory, Icinga, Skolelinux, SystemRescueCD og mykje meir.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Strategisk må ein fokusere på at sluttbruker eigentleg ikkje er så
fokusert på at det er fri programvare men at det skal «berre fungere».
Gjer det enkelt å bruker og ikkje minst å administrere. For Skolelinux
sin del må ein få eit betre fokus på overganger. Utbytting av servere
må gå meir automatisk, import og eksport av brukerbase og maskinbase
med meir må kunne gå enkelt og oppgradering til neste versjon må bli
mykje meir automatisk og gjennomtesta. Ein må unngå at ein må sette
opp frå start når ein byter ut ein server eller oppgraderer til neste
versjon. For å få Skolelinux til å bli eit betre alternativ for skular
må ein ha fokus på nettlesaren. Denne må bli «up to date» og støtte
dei protokollar og tillegg som vert brukt av forlag med meir.  Etter
kvart som meir og meir blir flytta ut i «skya» vert dette viktigare og
viktigare. Ein kunne ynskje og jobbe for at forlag med fleire tar i
bruk opne standarer, men inntil det skjer, må systemet kunne brukast
mot desse fagsystema.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For meg har prosjektet med Skolelinux vore ein svært artig og
lærerik prosess. Miljøet rundt er ikkje enormt stort, dog stort nok,
men det er svært hjelpevillig og engasjert.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;
project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
cost around NOK 15&amp;nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
followed by many others. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The public list of donors can be found on
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;the
donation page&lt;/a&gt; for the project, which also contain instructions if
you want to donate to the project.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago I came across
&lt;a href=&quot;http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/&quot;&gt;a blog post from Joey
Hess&lt;/a&gt; describing &lt;a href=&quot;http://ledger-cli.org/&quot;&gt;ledger&lt;/a&gt; and
hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there

are at least &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports&quot;&gt;five
different implementations&lt;/a&gt; able to read the format.  An example
entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
2004-05-27 Book Store
      Expenses:Books                 $20.00
      Liabilities:Visa
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/&quot;&gt;Christine
Spang&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html&quot;&gt;Pete
Keen&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/&quot;&gt;Andrew
Cantino&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/&quot;&gt;Ronald
Ip&lt;/a&gt; describing how they use it, as well as a post from
&lt;a href=&quot;https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo&quot;&gt;Bradley
M. Kuhn&lt;/a&gt; at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
recommendations fitting my need.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html&quot;&gt;ledger&lt;/a&gt;
package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html&quot;&gt;hledger&lt;/a&gt;
package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
seemed the best choice to get started.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger&quot;&gt;web scraper&lt;/a&gt; for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lodo.no/&quot;&gt;LODO&lt;/a&gt;, the accounting system used by
the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt; association, and started to
play with the data set.  I&#39;m not really deeply into accounting, but I
am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
using the &quot;&lt;tt&gt;ledger balance&lt;/tt&gt;&quot; command.  But I will have to
gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
for the organisations I am involved in.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is another interview with one of the people in the &lt;a
href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
the people behind the German
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/&quot;&gt;IT-Zukunft Schule&lt;/a&gt;&quot;
project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
welcome to Angela Fuß. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with &quot;my man&quot; Mike Gabriel, my
two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.

&lt;p&gt;At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
working in our own school project &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; in North
Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
relationship management and the communication processes in the
project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
and a yoga teacher.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I fell in love with Mike ;-).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
several points where the communication with the schools head or the
teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
parents.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
Germany.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For information about our school project you can read
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html&quot;&gt;the
interview with Mike Gabriel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
answer comes rather from a social point of view.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
teachers, parents...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
my N900 running with Maemo.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am really convinced that in our school project &quot;IT-Zukunft
Schule&quot; we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
strategy has three crucial pillars:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
offer to become more and more independent from us.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux noe for Ballangen? (Leserinnlegg til avisen Fremover)</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_noe_for_Ballangen___Leserinnlegg_til_avisen_Fremover_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_noe_for_Ballangen___Leserinnlegg_til_avisen_Fremover_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 14 Oct 2012 20:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Tirsdag 2012-10-09 sendte jeg følgende leserinnlegg til avisen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fremover.no/&quot;&gt;Fremover&lt;/a&gt;, etter å ha vært nordpå
noen dager og lest noen gamle aviser.  Publiserer den her i sin helhet
for fremtidig referanse.  Fremover publiserer dessverre ikke
leserinnlegg på nett.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To: redaksjon (at) fremover.no
&lt;br&gt;Subject: Leserinnlegg til Fremover: Skolelinux noe for Ballangen?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ærede redaktør&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I sommer (2012-07-23) hadde Fremover et oppslag om at Narvik
kommune hadde spart mellom 10 og 20 millioner kroner de siste årene på
å bruke Skolelinux på sine skoler.  Harstad har også tatt i bruk
Skolelinux på alle sine skoler.  Som tidligere Ballangsværing gledet
det meg stort å se at skoleløsningen vi har utviklet siden 2001 tas i
bruk i området der jeg vokste opp, og dermed bidrar til en bedre og
billigere skolehverdag.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux er en komplett IT-løsning for elevnettverket på en
skole, med både nettverkstjenester og løsning for elevmaskiner med
pedagogisk programvare, som tillater en å øke levetiden på en
datamaskin i skolen med mange år.  En undersøkelse publisert i mars
2012 viste at de 56 norske skolene som har offentliggjort at de bruker
Skolelinux eller annen Linuxutgave hadde 36% større PC-tetthet enn
landsgjennomsnittet, når en ser på tall rapportert til Grunnskolens
Informasjonssystem.  I følge Paul Reidar Løsnesløkken, IKT-konsulent i
Nord-Odal, fungerer datamaskiner godt til de er 8 til 10 år gamle.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I høst (2012-09-29) fortalte Fremover hvordan Ballangen kommune har
opparbeidet seg 20 millioner i underskudd og nok havner på Robek-lista
fra nyttår.  Kanskje Ballangen også burde ta i bruk Skolelinux for å
spare penger?  Hvis kommunen mangler kompetanse lokalt på Linux finnes
det kommersielle selskaper som tilbyr driftstjenester rundt
Skolelinux, og jeg bør vel avsløre at jeg selv er involvert i et av
dem, Skolelinux Drift AS.  Kommunen kan dermed få hjelp hvis de ikke
ønsker å bygge opp egen kompetanse.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vennlig hilsen
&lt;br&gt;Petter Reinholdtsen
&lt;br&gt;Fri programvareutvikler&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Referanser:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Linux_skoler_har_h_yere_PC_tetthet_enn_landsgjennomsnittet___pressemelding_fra_FRiSK.html&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Linux_skoler_har_h_yere_PC_tetthet_enn_landsgjennomsnittet___pressemelding_fra_FRiSK.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gladoppslag_om_Skolelinux_i_avisen_Fremover.html&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gladoppslag_om_Skolelinux_i_avisen_Fremover.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Innlegget ble så vidt jeg vet trykket i papirutgaven et par dager
senere, men jeg har ikke sett det selv.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Trengs flere frivillige til korrektur av den frie norske stavekontrollen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trengs_flere_frivillige_til_korrektur_av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trengs_flere_frivillige_til_korrektur_av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org/&quot;&gt;Den frie norske stavekontrollen&lt;/a&gt;
består av ca. 1,3 millioner bokmåls- og nynorskord.  Det er mange
kilder til ordene, f.eks. den norske ordbanken, norske nett-aviser,
stavekontrollbrukere og korrekturlesere, og endel feil har sneket seg
inn i databasen over ord.  For å finne og fikse feilene trengs det
korrekturlesing.  Her kommer frivillige inn.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hvis du vil bidra med korrektur av orddatabasen, kan du melde deg
frivillig som bokmåls- eller nynorskkorrekturleser og få tilsendt en
liten bunke ord på epost hver dag, lese over og sende inn på epost
tilbake til korrekturlesing-systemet.  Jo flere som sjekker, jo
raskere kommer vi igjennom hele databasen.  Så langt har vi oppdaget
341 bokmålsord og 50 nynorskord som ikke skal vært med i databasen.
Det er nok noen flere.  I tillegg har korrekturleserne oppdaget flere
ord som manglet, og fått lagt dem inn i stavekontrollen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hvis du vil bidra, følg instruksene på
&lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org/dokumentasjon.html&quot;&gt;prosjektsidene&lt;/a&gt;

for nye bidragsytere, og ta kontakt med Håvard eller epostlisten
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lister.ping.uio.no/mailman/listinfo/i18n-no&quot;&gt;i18n-no&lt;/a&gt;.
Gode norskkunnskaper er en fordel, og vilje til å sjekke
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nob-ordbok.uio.no/perl/ordbok.cgi&quot;&gt;ordboka&lt;/a&gt; et
krav!&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Ny utgave (v2.1) av den frie norske stavekontrollen gitt ut</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ny_utgave__v2_1__av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen_gitt_ut.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ny_utgave__v2_1__av_den_frie_norske_stavekontrollen_gitt_ut.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 2 Oct 2012 09:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I helga fikk jeg endelig pakket sammen en ny versjon av den norske
stavekontrollen, og gikk ut versjon 2.1 etter at det var gått fire og
et halvt år siden sist.  I dag fikk vi sendt ut annonseringen.  Her er
det vi sendte ut:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oslo, 2012-10-02&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pressemelding: Ny utgave av norsk stavekontroll med
synonymordliste&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mer enn fire år etter at forrige utgave av den frie norske
stavekontrollen ble utgitt, er en ny og forbedret versjon klar. Dette er
noe utviklerne er veldig glade for.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den største endringen er at byggesystemet for stavekontrollen er
skrevet om til å akseptere ord med bindestrek (f.eks. «e-post»). Litt
over 10.000 slike ordformer er lagt til i orddatabasen. I tillegg er
det kommet en del nye ord og rettelser rapportert inn av de frivillige
som gjennomfører korrektur av orddatabasen i prosjektet. For å få
fortgang i dette korrekturarbeidet er det fint med flere frivillige
som kan bidra i prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 - En god og fritt tilgjengelig stavekontroll er en viktig byggestein
   for å fremme bruken av korrekt norsk språk, sier prosjektdeltager
   Petter Reinholdtsen.
&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Takket være samarbeidet med synonymordlisteprosjektet er
synonymordlista for bokmål tilgjengelig sammen med ordlista for bokmål
og nynorsk. En synonymordliste for nynorsk er også med, men den er på
prøvestadiet og meget liten.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Stavekontrollpakken og synonymordlistene brukes i
LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org, Koffice, Mozilla Thunderbird, Firefox og
en rekke andre programmer, og på både Windows, Mac OS X, Linux og
BSD.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det hele utgis under den frie lisensen GPL og kan fritt lastes ned
fra prosjektsidene på
&lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org&quot;&gt;no.speling.org&lt;/a&gt;. Ferdige pakker for
LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org er også tilgjengelige fra samme sted.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det norske stavekontrollprosjektet er i kontakt med lignende
prosjekter for blant annet å forbedre stavekontrollteknologien, å
utveksle verktøy for vedlikehold av orddatabasen og å få tilgang til
relevante datasett. Et av disse prosjektene er et separat prosjekt ved
Sametinget som er i gang med å utvikle samisk stavekontroll for blant
annet Microsoft Word og OpenOffice.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Et søsterprosjekt for å lage grammatikk-kontroll for
LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org er igangsatt, men har ennå ikke kommet
langt nok til å brukes. Frivillige til å bidra i dette prosjektet er
også svært velkomne.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kontaktperson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
Axel Bojer, prosjektdeltager
&lt;br&gt;E-post: fri_programvare (at) bojer.no
&lt;br&gt;Tlf: +47 954 32 417
&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referanser&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Det frie norske stavekontrollprosjektet for bokmål og nynorsk:
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org&quot;&gt;http://no.speling.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Samiske korrekturverktøy:
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://divvun.no/&quot;&gt;http://divvun.no/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ordlistene fra Norsk ordbank:
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.edd.uio.no/prosjekt/ordbanken/&quot;&gt;http://www.edd.uio.no/prosjekt/ordbanken/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Last ned ordlistene:
    &lt;a href=&quot;http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30577&quot;&gt;http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=30577&lt;/a&gt;
    (PS: no_NO-pack2 for OOo 2.x))&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fra NEWS-fila i kildekodepakken&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Release 2.1 (2012-09-30)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Switch to new version scheme. Make new version 2.1, not 2.0.11. We do not
    release often enough to justify three digits.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Switch build rules to build OOo v2 thesaurus files, as the v1 build rules
    no longer work. This require the libmythes-dev package on Debian.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Introduce new Makefile variables hyphendir and thesdir to make it easier to
    control where to install these.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Change script used to import from no.speling.org, to load new word
    boundaries if at least two people believed the boundaries was correct.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Added word boundaries for several words (around 500 words) using the
    updated script.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Imported thesarus for bokmål from synonymer.merg.net.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Rewrote build rules to use = instead of - as combined word marker, thus
    allowing words like e-post.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Imported a lot (around 10k words) of new words with dash (-) in them from
    no.speling.org now that it is handled by the build system.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of &quot;light&quot;
university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
training is anyway very important&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spse.ch/&quot;&gt;SPSE school&lt;/a&gt; (secondary) is a very
special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
already several years ago. But since the system was still not
Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn&#39;t
use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
hole.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
engineered platform and you don&#39;t have to start to build up your PDC
and your clients from GNU/scratch; I&#39;ve already done this once and I
can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
hassle.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
devices that have specific software packages for another specific
distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
&lt;a href=&quot;http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html&quot;&gt;Perceus&lt;/a&gt;
has the same...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;P&gt;I think that the only real argument that school managers &quot;hear&quot; is
cost reduction. They don&#39;t give too much weight on quality, stability,
just because they are normally not open to change.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
don&#39;t.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
Those who don&#39;t have such needs will hardly move to Linux.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Gladoppslag om Skolelinux i avisen Fremover</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gladoppslag_om_Skolelinux_i_avisen_Fremover.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gladoppslag_om_Skolelinux_i_avisen_Fremover.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I sommer hadde avisen &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fremover.no/&quot;&gt;Fremover&lt;/a&gt;
et flott oppslag om bruken av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; på alle skolene
der.  Artikkelen var på trykk på side 4 og 5 i papirutgaven
2012-07-23, men mangler dessverre i nettutgaven av avisen.  Mine
henvendelser til avisen for å få artikkelen på nett har så langt ikke
vært vellykket.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Artikkelen med tittelen &quot;Narvik kommune bruker gratisprogram i
skolen - Har spart millioner&quot;, forteller om hvordan bruken av
Skolelinux er en stor suksess i Narvik siden det ble tatt i bruk i
2004.  Her er noen fine sitater:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&quot;- Skolelinux har spart kommunen for store pengesummer, millionbeløp,
  som de heller kan bruke på andre ting, sier IKT-konsulent Viggo
  Fedreheim.&quot;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Avisen forteller at de har fått tilgang til beregninger som viser
at Narvik kommune har spart noe mellom 10 og 20 millioner kroner de
siste 8 årene på å bruke Skolelinux, og fortsetter:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;

&quot;Regnestykket tar høyde for sparte kostnader til lisenser som medfølger
de alternative operativsystemene, lavere driftskostnader og lengre
levetid på datautstyret.  Totalt har Narvikskolen en maskinpark på
1600 maskiner fordelt på de 11 skolene fra Skjomen i sør til Bjerkvik
i nord.&quot;

&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Viggo Fedreheim sier dette om hvor noe av gevinsten kommer fra:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&quot;- Vi kan gjenbruke gamle maskiner i skolen som er for dårlig andre
  steder i kommunen der de ikke bruker Skolelinux.  Levetiden på en
  datamaskin blir 3-5 år lenger med Skolelinux.  Vi kaller det for
  grønn IT, miljøvennlig IT.&quot;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Her er det mulighet for flere kommuner å få et godt IT-system på
skolene, hvis de er villige til å forsøke.  De som ikke har kompetanse
innomhus kan kjøpe det fra en av de kommersielle leverandørene av
Skolelinux-tjenester, som &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
Drift AS&lt;/a&gt; (der jeg er styremedlem).  Komplett liste er tilgjengelig
via
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp&quot;&gt;wikien&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2012-08-16: Today I was allowed by Fremover to put the PDF I
received from them with a copy of the article on the Internet.  It is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/2012-07-23-fremover-narvik.pdf&quot;&gt;now
available&lt;/a&gt; in the Skolelinux press archive.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Tips for å bli med i Skolelinux-prosjektet (som faktisk er aktivt)</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Tips_for___bli_med_i_Skolelinux_prosjektet__som_faktisk_er_aktivt_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Tips_for___bli_med_i_Skolelinux_prosjektet__som_faktisk_er_aktivt_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Jeg fikk nettopp spørsmål på epost om Skolelinux-prosjektet lever
fra en som var interessert i å bidra, og måtte jo konstatere at i og
med at spørsmålet ble stilt har prosjektet ikke lyktes med å formidle
sin aktivitet.  Her er det jeg svarte:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jada, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux-prosjektet&lt;/a&gt;
lever, men det meste av utvikling foregår nå under paraplyen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; som er det
internasjonale navnet på prosjektet.  Dugnaden i Norge organiseres av
medlemsforeningen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
Skolen&lt;/a&gt;, og det finnes minst ett selskap som selger kommersiell
support på løsningen (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
Drift AS&lt;/a&gt;, der jeg er styremedlem).  Anbefaler at du melder deg på
epostlisten
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/&quot;&gt;debian-edu@lists.debian.org&lt;/a&gt;
(og debian-edu-announce) og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://medlem.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;melder deg inn i
foreningen&lt;/a&gt; for å få beskjed om aktivitet som planlegges.  Det
planlegges
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering&quot;&gt;utviklersamlinger
i august&lt;/a&gt; og utover høsten.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bidra gjerne med å spre ordet om Skolelinux.  Det er alt for få som
bidrar til pressedekning, bloggposter, twittermeldinger, etc. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg antar du har funnet
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju/&quot;&gt;bloggserien
min med intervjuer&lt;/a&gt;.  Det er antagelig også interessant for deg å
følge med på &lt;a href=&quot;http://planet.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Planet
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hm, jeg burde vel blogge alle disse lenkene slik at de blir enklere
å finne...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Herved gjort. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; project have users all over the globe, but until
recently we have not known about any users in Norway&#39;s neighbour
country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
to adjust and scale the just released
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
Wheezy&lt;/a&gt; setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
happy to share his answers with you here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
&quot;folkhighschool&quot; teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
Norwegian I believe it&#39;s called &quot;Vuxenupplaring&quot;. I also have a master
in &quot;Technology and social change&quot;. So I&#39;m not really a tech guy, I
just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
perspective when working with IT.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
seriously into Skolelinux instead.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
same. In our VNC-based solution you had to &quot;beat around the bush&quot; by
setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit &quot;oldish&quot; applications. Debian is
quicker to update.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
sound from working with them.  It&#39;s a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
some applications can&#39;t be open source. As for us we really need to
run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
market to Adobe. The only &quot;equivalent&quot; to InDesign in the opensource
world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
sound file.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Myself I&#39;m running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
it&#39;s also very important that the multimedia support is working
flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
idea. It&#39;s also important that the open source software works even for
the administration.  It&#39;s hard to convince the teachers to stick with
open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
will create a difference in &quot;status&quot; between classes, so a good
support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
article &lt;a href=&quot;https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/&quot;&gt;Radio station
management with Airtime&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/&quot;&gt;Airtime&lt;/a&gt; which
claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rivendellaudio.org/&quot;&gt;Rivendell&lt;/a&gt; which claim to
be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
useful to the aspiring radio producer.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Why do schools waste money on IT?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 8 Jul 2012 09:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
Steinberg in his blog post
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/&quot;&gt;Can
you recognize the million pound chair?&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.  Read it and weep for the
spending of your tax money.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
purchases.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 7 Jul 2012 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Included in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; is a large collection of end user and school specific
software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
receive.  The software is

&lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/&quot;&gt;named FET&lt;/a&gt;, and it provide a
graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
both teachers and students.  It is available both for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html&quot;&gt;Linux, MacOSX and
Windows&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html&quot;&gt;the
feature list&lt;/a&gt;, liftet from the project web site:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
    You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it &lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
    (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
    (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
    (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
    (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
    (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
    sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
    (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
    &lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
    semi-automatic or manual allocation&lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
    GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports &lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
    with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)&lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Import/export from CSV format&lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
    formats &lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
    and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
    non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
    (as separate sets)&lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
    (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
    percentage)&lt;/li&gt;
        
  &lt;li&gt;Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
    demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
    memory):
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of working days per week: 35&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of teachers: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of subjects: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of activity tags&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of activities: 30000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of rooms: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of buildings: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
          students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
          also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
          activity)&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of time constraints&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of space constraints&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Break periods&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;For teacher(s):
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max/min days per week&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max gaps per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min hours daily&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;

          &lt;li&gt;Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
            days per week&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;For students (sets):
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max gaps per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min hours daily&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;

          &lt;li&gt;Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
            days per week&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;A single preferred starting time&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;A set of preferred starting times&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;A set of preferred time slots&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min/max days between them&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;End(s) students day&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Same starting time/day/hour&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
            flexible constraint, useful in many situations)&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Not overlapping&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max simultaneous in selected time slots&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
    &lt;ul&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Room not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;For teacher(s):
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Home room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max building changes per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between building changes&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
                
      &lt;li&gt;For students (sets):
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Home room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Max building changes per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between building changes&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;li&gt;Preferred room(s):
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;For a subject&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;For an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;For a subject and an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Individually for a (sub)activity&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;

      &lt;li&gt;For a set of activities:
        &lt;ul&gt;
          &lt;li&gt;Occupy a maximum number of different rooms&lt;/li&gt;
        &lt;/ul&gt;
      &lt;/li&gt;
    &lt;/ul&gt;
  &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
manually, check it out. 

A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/&quot;&gt;a
blog post from MarvelSoft&lt;/a&gt;.  If you find FET useful, please provide
a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos&quot;&gt;Debian Edu HowTo
section&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Markus Gamenius</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Markus_Gamenius.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Markus_Gamenius.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Tidligere leder av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no&quot;&gt;foreningen som
organiserer Skolelinux-dugnaden&lt;/a&gt;, Markus Gamenius , har i vår vært
i media og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dn.no/privatokonomi/article2345489.ece&quot;&gt;debattert
skattepolitikk&lt;/a&gt;, og det fikk meg til å høre om han kunne lokkes til
å fortelle om hans inntrykk nå, etter at han ble lokket bort fra
Linux- og &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-verden
for å overta familiebedriften.  Her har vi hans betraktninger i dag,
noen måneder etter at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
Squeeze&lt;/a&gt;-utgaven ble gitt ut.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Markus Gamenius og er 40 år.  Utdannet biolog med ymse
fag på siden.  Har jobbet som lærer der jeg var driftsansvarlig på
Ulsrud VGS i Oslo.  Senere eide og jobbet jeg flere år i Linuxlabs AS,
som jeg solgte til Redpill Linpro AS (den gangen Linpro AS).  I dag
jobber jeg med ulike investeringer, hovedsaklig i eiendom, men også i
en del ulike IT-relaterte bedrifter.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fruen og jeg dro på en lengre seiltur i 2000, der jeg måtte ha &quot;noe
å gjøre&quot; under hjemturen over Atlanteren.  Jeg kjøpte et par bøker om
Linux i en bokhandel i New York og ble veldig fascinert.  Etter
hjemkomsten begynte jeg å jobbe på Ulsrud VGS, som naturfagslærer, men
som IT-interessert ble jeg fort en del av den nye IT-satsningen som
skulle løfte Ulsrud og gi skolen en bedre rykte.  Vi hadde ganske
mange maskiner, som gikk på Win98 og to servere som ble oppgradert til
Win2000.  Systemene var ustabil og dårlige.  På leting etter noe
bedre, uten å knekke ryggen økonomisk, kom jeg over &quot;Linux i Skolen&quot;
og Skolelinux.  Jeg tok kontakt med miljøet og en gjeng møtte opp på
skolen, der vi gjorde en liten testinstallasjon.  Etter et par år var
ryggraden på skolen Linux (Skolelinux) og vi hadde flere hundre
maskiner, både tynne klienter (gamle og nye), bærbare (Debian) og noen
stasjonære (Win2000).  På et tidspunkt var Ulsrud den råeste IT-skolen
og det irriterte skolesjefen i Oslo, da de satset hardt på
Windows.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det som gjorde at vi fikk inn Skolelinux var ene og alene
økonomiske.  Det faktum at vi slapp å kjøpe masse nye lisenser og at
vi kunne bruke gammel hardware.  Alt i alt gjorde dette at vi sparte
mye, men i stede for å bruke mindre på IT brukte vi det vi sparte på å
skaffe mer hardware og på den måten gi det beste tilbudet i landet til
våre elever.  For oss som driftet var det himmel å ha et system som
gikk å administrere sentralt og effektivt.  Det var heller ikke så
dumt at vi kunne &quot;låse&quot; maskinene mer effektivt enn vi kunne med
Microsoft Windows, slik at vi slapp mye feil og problemer som ble
forårsaket av &quot;kreative&quot; elever.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det vi slet med var mangelen av en del programmer lærerne ville ha.
Husker ikke alle, men det var et knippe med pedagogiske programmer de
ikke fikk.  I dag tror jeg det problemet er langt mindre da det meste
av disse kjøres gjennom nettleseren.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg bruker mye Apple i dag og er ikke så stolt av det, men jeg har
både OpenOffice, Firefox og en del andre programmer på den bærbare.
Firefox brukes mest av disse.  På Apple-serveren hjemme bruker jeg
HandBrake mye, og jeg har installert OpenWRT på flere av
basestasjonene både hjemme og på jobben.  I tillegg til det har jeg i
flere år finansiert et prosjekt som heter
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.found.no/&quot;&gt;Found IT&lt;/a&gt;.  Dette er et prosjekt der
vi lager et rammeverk for søk, der alt vi bruker fri programvare.  Det
er Alex Brasetvik som er daglig leder i Found IT.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Når det gjelder IT og skole er fortsatt økonomi veldig viktig.  Så
man må oppfylle minimumskravene (ikke være best, men bra nok) og selge
seg inn på hvor mye man sparer.  Det betyr selvsagt at man sparer på
lisenser, men også på driftsinnsats.  Men nå når jeg ikke er en aktiv
del av miljøet lenger hører jeg nesten ingen ting om fri programvare.
Jeg stiller meg da spørsmålet om det har blitt stille rundt miljøet,
eller om jeg kun så det tydeligere før når jeg var aktiv? Uansett er
det for stille rundt Skolelinux-prosjektet nå.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
another interview with the people behind
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.
This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
ICT in schools&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
been used everyday inside Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
economical and technical resources in the different countries don&#39;t
allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
technologies in school.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
between Iceweasel, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geany.org/&quot;&gt;Geany&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator&quot;&gt;Terminator&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
universities. So different strategies are needed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
we&#39;ve done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
using wireless. I think we&#39;ll see more and more personal devices in
the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
working there.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;During my work on
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
based on Squeeze&lt;/a&gt;, I came across some issues that should be
addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
explanation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
system depend on tasksel tasks in
/usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
installation.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
at least try to enable it for these services:
&lt;ul&gt;

  &lt;li&gt;CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
    quotas.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Nagios for admins checking the system status.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;LDAP for admins updating LDAP.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.&lt;/li&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/653305&quot;&gt;BTS report #653305&lt;/a&gt; and the
d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
debian-edu-install to use this new hook.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
in Wheezy.

&lt;li&gt;Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
up KDE login on slow networks.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
have it available where the admin will be looking for it..&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
requested in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/588968&quot;&gt;BTS report
#588968&lt;/a&gt; and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;reduce the number of chemistry visualisers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;consider dropping xpaint&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;and probably more?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
for the LTSP chroot).&lt;/li&gt;


&lt;li&gt;In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
use.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
new applications with a simple mouse click.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
instead of the &quot;it is documented&quot; method of today.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
&quot;take over&quot; the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
There are at least three implementations,
&lt;a href=&quot;italc.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;italc&lt;/a&gt;,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itais.net/help/en/&quot;&gt;controlaula&lt;/a&gt; og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.epoptes.org/&quot;&gt;epoptes&lt;/a&gt; and we should pick one of
them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
given room.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
investigated.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
version.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 2 Jun 2012 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
(Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
by Angela).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
becoming an osteopath.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
introducing free software into schools. The project&#39;s name is
&quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; (IT future for schools). The project links IT
skills with communication skills.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
&quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
distributions that target being used for school networks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
protection experts, other IT professionals.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We came to two conclusions:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
whereas most of each school&#39;s requirements could mapped by a standard
IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
point.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
of people into using IT and teaching with IT. &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot;
tries to provide an approach for this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school&#39;s IT
equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
spare time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
non-existent until 2010/2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
avoidance do exist.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
and probably a gain for all.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
project communication, honest communication within the group of
developers, etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every coin has two sides:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Technically: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/311188&quot;&gt;BTS issue
#311188&lt;/a&gt;, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
contribute).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
there being rather disconnected from the development department of
Debian Edu / Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
is being integrated in Ubuntu&#39;s software center.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
whiteboard.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My favourite terminal emulator is KDE&#39;s Yakuake.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
enrol people.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2012 17:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
since then, helping to make sure the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; release became as good as it is..&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
Mathematics, and Computer Science (&quot;Informatik&quot;). During the past 12
years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
O- or A-level (&quot;Abitur&quot;).  For quite as long, I&#39;ve been taking care of
our computer network.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
(4 months).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
(&quot;Best Newcomer Distribution&quot;, also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
(Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
(Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
administration costs tend towards zero.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While Debian&#39;s stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
i.e. harder to understand for novices.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
people really &quot;own&quot; their hardware, to make them understand the
difference between proprietary software products, and free software
developing.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany&#39;s public schools
there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
licenses), so schools won&#39;t benefit from any savings here. This
privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
share among German Skolelinux schools.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
trained. In many cases, teachers&#39; software customs are respected by
decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
shared world wide (school books e.g.).&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don&#39;t
need to know the &quot;ribbon menu&quot; in order to get employed.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
keep sending documents in ODF formats.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Alf Tonny Bätz</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Alf_Tonny_B_tz.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Alf_Tonny_B_tz.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 20 May 2012 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux-prosjektets&lt;/a&gt;
musiker og mannen bak
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals/Rosegarden/&quot;&gt;opplæringsdokumentene
i Rosegarden&lt;/a&gt;
(&lt;a href=&quot;http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/nb/rosegarden-manual.html&quot;&gt;norsk
utgave&lt;/a&gt;) for musikklærere, Alf Tonny Bätz, er neste mann ut i min
intervjurunde av folkene bak Skolelinux-løsningen.  Jeg har kjent Alf
Tonny siden vi møttes som barn på påskefjellet i Ofoten, og ble
gledelig overrasket da han dukket opp i Skolelinux-prosjektet etter å
ikke ha sett noe til ham på mange år.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg er utdannet kokk av yrke, og har utøvet yrket i 12 år.  Men
etter at ryggen sa takk før seg, studerte jeg nettverksadministrasjon
ved Næringsakademiet i Bergen årene 2008-2009 slik at jeg kunne
forfølge en av mine største interesser - data.  Til daglig jobber jeg
ved &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.narvikskolen.no/parken/&quot;&gt;Parken
ungdomsskole&lt;/a&gt; med å drifte skolens PC-er. Har også litt
musikkundervisning.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mitt mål er å bevisstgjøre musikklærene mulighetene med de frie
programmene som finnes i Skolelinux, blant annet Rosegarden.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Har i mange år drevet med musikk og en av grunnen til at Rosegarden
falt i smak for min del, var fordi denne fungere og ligner mest på
Windows-programmet (cubase) jeg jobbet mye med da jeg i mine yngre
dager var «Windows fanatiker».  Ble introdusert til Linux av en kompis
av meg for omtrent 14 år siden, og har bare blitt mer og mer glad i
dette operativsystemet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Da jeg ble sykemeldt fra min gamle jobb, og måtte omskoleres,
havnet jeg i 2007 sammen med Viggo Fedreheim på IKT-avdelingen i
Narvik kommune, der ble jeg for første gang introdusert til
Skolelinuxprosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux er enkelt å holde i drift og masse flotte programmer som
geogebra, ktouch og kgeografi følger med pakken.  Man kan ta i bruk
gamle PC-er igjen, slik at skoler med dårlig råd får opp en brukbar
PC-park.  PC-er som er ca 6-9 år gamle fungere tilfredstillende, bare
de har 512 MB RAM eller mer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ulempene er at noen av de pedagogiske programmene som lærene ønsker
å bruke fungere dårlig med Linux.  Mye pga. av at disse programmene
blir ikke laget til Linuxbaserte operativsystemer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Video- og bilde-redigering har dessverre en del mangler, mange av
programmene har en tendens til og krasje.  Det gjelder blant annet
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kdenlive.org/&quot;&gt;kdenlive&lt;/a&gt; og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openshotvideo.com/&quot;&gt;openshot&lt;/a&gt;, for å nevne
noen.  De er ikke stabile nok.  Når elevene kommer med filmsnutter de
ønsker og jobbe med, så godtar ikke programmene filene, og når elevene
jobber med redigering bare krasjer programmene uten forvarsel.  Det er
for vanskelig å få noe som bare fungerer ut av boksen her. Når en elev
plugger inn et videokamera eller fotoapparat så er det alltid noe som
ikke vil fungere.  Programmene godtar ikke format, godtar ikke
kameraet, osv., osv. Det er dessverre med på og dra ned en positiv
opplevelse av bruk av fri programvare.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Man må ofte bruke flere en et video redigerings program før og få
fullført en ønsket oppgave.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eksempel:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hvis det ene programmet ikke vil ta i mot videofilen klarer et
annet det, men det programmet som klarer det kan ikke gjøre de samme
oppgavene som det programmet som ikke ville ta i mot filen,
Tilsvarende er det med foto, man må bruke flere programmer for å få
et ferdig resultat. Til dags dato har jeg enda ikke funnet et video-
og fotoprogram som kan tilfredstillende fullføre en oppgave.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Så man kan klare og fullføre en oppgave, men i verste fall må man
innom 3-4 programmer for å få det til.  Så jeg har enda ikke til dags
dato sett at et program fungere 100% til alt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det programmet jeg har best erfaring til er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://cinelerra.org/&quot;&gt;cinelerra&lt;/a&gt;, men dessverre har det
også tendenser og krasje av og til uten grunn.&lt;/p&gt;

Lydsystemet kan også være et mareritt.  Konkret snakker jeg om når du
bruker for eksempel et smartboard, så følger det med USB-lydkort på
disse.  Problemet ligger her i at systemet ikke vil velge rett
lydkort, så man må inn med padevchooser for å sette opp PulseAudio
til og velge at USB-lydkortet skal brukes.  Det blir for tungvindt for
lærene, de ønsker at ting skal fungere med en gang. (min løsning på
det problemet ble at jeg måtte deaktivere lydkortet som fantes på
maskinen) men da må man bestandig slå på smartboard-tavla.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Programmene jeg bruker mest av er: Rosegarden, jack, qsynth, audacity,
k3b, openttd og libreoffice.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Jeg tror det må bevisstgjøring av Skolene til, dvs. reklamere høylytt
og fortelle og vise de andre skolene at frie programvarer faktisk
fungere.  Jeg trur faktisk mange ikke vet at det finnes frie
alternativer.
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
publish another interview with the people behind
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.
This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
details get right before release.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Jürgen Leibner, I&#39;m 49 years old and living in
Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I&#39;m a
certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
home since 2006.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
computers in use. I answered: &quot;Yes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
people nearby who founded &#39;skolelinux.de&#39;. It was the Skolelinux
prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
Bielefeld in December of 2006.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When I&#39;m looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
for me as today.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the past there were advantages like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;I don&#39;t need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
they had little money to spent for computers and software.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
cost.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
clients because of it&#39;s preconfigured overall concept of being a
infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
server&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
school.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
came up in this way:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
now.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
interfaces used in the past.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
different needs.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The documentation is usable and gets better every day.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
is sharing knowledge and minds.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
solved today by Debian Edu. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
whole municipality areas.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
politicians.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Technically there are no disadvantages I&#39;m aware of.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
countries and areas all over the world.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Forskning: &quot;GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker&quot;</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309&quot;&gt;en
hovedfagsoppgave&lt;/a&gt; ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer.  Jeg ble fascinert
over det som presenteres der.  Her er sammendraget:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring
over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det
økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg
for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på
fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover
økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri
programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert
programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid
programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning,
disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de
manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven
er:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere? &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og
modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom
kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med
frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i
dialog med informantene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige
ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen
for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus
fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske
delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler
operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken
OpenOffice.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling
av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom
begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt
vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de
økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og
stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som
omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien
til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall
eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken
inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og
formater.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er
laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av
OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i
skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt
symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i
Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode,
mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske
friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også
slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke
komplett oppgave tilgjengelig.  På tide å holde et øye med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/search.html?q=skolelinux&quot;&gt;Skolelinux-søket&lt;/a&gt;
til DUO...&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Behind &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
up in the recently released
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;Debian
Edu Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
information technology and science/technology.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
contributing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
Debian Project!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
rather small and often busy elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN&quot;&gt;Debian LAN&lt;/a&gt;
project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
politicians, this works out great for the &quot;market-leader&quot;.  The school
administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to &#39;free&#39;
the system.  There is currently some discussion about &quot;Open Data&quot; and
&quot;Free/Open Standards&quot;.  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 8 Apr 2012 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;,
and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
contributor to the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;Debian
Edu Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
reason my name&#39;s in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
they&#39;d like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
&quot;localisation&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These questions are too hard for me - I don&#39;t use it!  In fact I
had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I&#39;d got out of the
education system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
money on the latest hardware.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, I don&#39;t know.  I suppose I&#39;d be inclined to try reasoning
with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
you would hardly need a strategy.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 6 Apr 2012 22:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Recently I have spent time with
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt; on speeding
up a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were

NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
around 230 access(2) calls.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
(almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
&lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416&quot;&gt;KDE bug report
from 2009&lt;/a&gt; about this problem, and it is still unsolved.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
almost instantaneous.  I&#39;m not quite sure where to make the package
publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
that is not really an option at the moment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
(at) lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2015-08-04: The
&lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debian-edu/upstream/kde-icon-cache.git/&quot;&gt;source
of the scripts and associated Debian package&lt;/a&gt; is available from the
Debian Edu github repository.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 5 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; by
Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
for schools.  Check out his article
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
distribution for education&lt;/a&gt; if you want to learn more.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Germany is a core area for the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve studied Mathematics at the university &#39;Ruhr-Universität&#39; in
Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I&#39;m working as a teacher at the school
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/&quot;&gt;Westfalen-Kolleg
Dortmund&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
examination &#39;Abitur&#39;, which will allow to study at a university. This
second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
blended learning project called &#39;abitur-online.nrw&#39; and in some other
information technology related projects. For about ten years I&#39;ve been
teacher and coordinator for the &#39;abitur-online&#39; project at my
school. Being now in my early sixties, I&#39;ve decided to leave school at
the end of April this year.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
reach. At home I&#39;m using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
the admin teachers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it&#39;s
Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
So it was a perfect choice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Being open source, there are no license problems and so it&#39;s
possible to point teachers and students to programs like
OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It&#39;s of
high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
a school and to choose where to get support for this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nothing yet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
LibreOffice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
that doesn&#39;t seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Linux-skoler har høyere PC-tetthet enn landsgjennomsnittet - pressemelding fra FRiSK</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Linux_skoler_har_h_yere_PC_tetthet_enn_landsgjennomsnittet___pressemelding_fra_FRiSK.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Linux_skoler_har_h_yere_PC_tetthet_enn_landsgjennomsnittet___pressemelding_fra_FRiSK.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag har &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no&quot;&gt;FRiSK&lt;/a&gt;
sendt ut følgende pressemelding basert på mine beregninger av
PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Linux-skoler har høyere PC-tetthet enn
landsgjennomsnittet&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oslo, 30 Mars 2012&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er store forskjeller på skolenes digitale tilstand, viser
undersøkelsen Monitor 2011 som er laget på oppdrag fra
Kunnskapsdepartementet. Dette har ført til debatt om PC-tilgangen i
skolen, og om de med Linux i skolen gjør det bedre bedre eller
dårligere enn snittet i landet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nå har vi tallene. Skoler med Linux har 36% større PC-tetthet en
landsgjennomsnittet. På spørsmål hvorfor skoler med Linux har større
PC-tetthet, observerer Paul Reidar Løsnesløkken som er IKT-konsulent i
Nord-Odal:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&quot;Vi erfarer at klienter med Skolelinux har god funksjon
til de er 8 til 10 år gamle. Dette er omtrent dobbelt så lenge som
andre løsninger, og skolene får mer datautstyr for
pengene.&quot;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Undersøkelsen baserer seg på 56 skoler som har gjort det offentlig
at de kjører Skolelinux eller annen Linux-utgave. De kan også ha PC-er
med Windows i skolenettet. Når en sammenligner PC-tetthetene på
skolene i kommunene Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik, Nittedal,
Nord-Odal og Randaberg, er det i snitt 2,28 elev pr. PC på skolene med
Linux. På landsbasis er det 3.11 elev per PC i grunnskolen, i følge
side 95 i Monitor-rapporten for 2011. Målingen viser dermed 36% større
PC-tetthet i skoler med Linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om Skolelinux/Debian Edu&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux har til hensikt å gi alle barn full tilgang til
skoleaktuelle dataprogram på sitt eget morsmål. Derfor følger det med
godt over 100 skoleaktuelle programmene laget for læring. De fleste
programmene er oversatt til over 50 språk. Elevene skal også kunne
studere alle sider av dataprogrammene. Derfor følger også kildekode
med. Elever med interesse kan lære av eksperter som har laget
systemet. Dette med enkelt programmering i læreprogram som KTurtle,
til profesjonelle verktøy som Qt Creator eller Java.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux er laget for sentralisert drift, der alt teknisk
administrasjon av alle skolene kan gjøres sentralt fra kommunehuset
eller sentralt i en region.  F.eks. drifter to-tre personer 70.000
skoledatamaskiner på 200 skoler i delstaten Extremadura i
Spania. Etter velykket bruk av Debian Edu i skolen, legger delstaten
over til Debian på 40.000 datamaskiner i administrasjonen. Det er idag
mange selskap som tilbyr profesjonell støtte til innføring og drift i
Norge og verden.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Om FRiSK&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Medlemsforeningen Fri Programvare i Skolen organiserer
dugnadsprosjektet som står bak Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kontaktperson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Knut Yrvin&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Leder av Fri Programvare i Skolen (FRISK)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Epost: knuty at skolelinux.no
&lt;br&gt;Mobil: +47 93 479 561&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referanser&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;http://www.skolelinux.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Download&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Download&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wis.no/gsi&quot;&gt;https://www.wis.no/gsi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://iktsenteret.no/sites/iktsenteret.no/files/attachments/monitor2011.pdf&quot;&gt;http://iktsenteret.no/sites/iktsenteret.no/files/attachments/monitor2011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/linuxiskolen/2012-March/018500.html&quot;&gt;https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/linuxiskolen/2012-March/018500.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Roy-Arne Myhre</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Roy_Arne_Myhre.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Roy_Arne_Myhre.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet, får vi
denne gangen høre fra en IKT-ansvarlig som har brukt Skolelinux i
mange år, og vært storfornøyd med erfaringene så langt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mitt navn er Roy-Arne Myhre og jeg er 42 år.  Jeg er ansatt hos
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sandskole.no/&quot;&gt;Sand skole&lt;/a&gt; (Balsfjord kommune)
og har stort sett vært det siden 1990.  Jeg er IKT ansvarlig ved
skolen i 40% stilling – 10% undervisning – musikk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ved skolen er det ca 100 elever og ca 18 lærere + 4 assistenter i
hele og delte stillinger. Alle lærerne har bærbar PC (dessverre med
Win Vista) – assistenter har tilgang til egne. Vi benytter Fronter i
det daglige arbeidet.  Vi har ca 90 elevmaskiner som fungerer til
daglig opp mot Linux server (XFCE) som driftes av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bzz.no/&quot;&gt;BzzWare AS&lt;/a&gt; via nett. Maskinparken
består kun av brukt utstyr for elevene – og noe av dette begynner å
bli vel gammelt selv som halvtykke klienter.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med
Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi kom første gang i kontakt med Skolelinux rundt 1997. Den gang
var det oppstart-disketter i hver maskin, ikke mulighet for lyd og
video, gamle nettverkskort og mye plundring.  Vi hadde en ihuga
forelder med som pådriver, forsker og inspirator for hele opplegget.
Selv ante jeg knapt at Skolelinux fantes, men han var av den
utforskende typen, og fikk både meg og skolelederen i trua på at dette
var ting som kunne fungere.  Etter dette har det gått gradvis
framover; flere maskiner er hentet inn gjennom bl.a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.greentech.no/&quot;&gt;Greentech&lt;/a&gt; og utrangert utstyr
fra høgskole / Avinor og private givere. Når maskinene ble for trege
for nye Windows-versjoner, sto vi klare til å putte dem i nettverket
vårt.  Dette betyr at vi i dag har 1:1 dekning av maskiner på
ungdomstrinnet og bedre enn 1:2 på barnetrinnet. Dette er vi veldig
fornøyd med, og vi kan ikke se for oss hverdagen som ville vært
alternativet ved bruk av Windows med sine lisenser pr. Bruker/maskin.
Da ville vi nok vært tilbake til 1-2 maskiner pr klasserom med de
negative konsekvenser det ville hatt for undervisningsformene våre. Vi
kan ha en hel klasse i prosjektjobbing eller individuell jobbing
samtidig – vi kan avholde tentamen og eksamen uten
logistikkproblemer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Hvor skal jeg begynne... Stabiliteten er et nøkkelord - det bare
virker.  Har du først fått en server med Skolelinux opp og gå, så må
det en maskinarefeil eller sabotasje til for å stoppe den.  Det at man
kan bruke eldre maskiner som normalt sett ville gått på dynga, er også
glimrende - billig for skoler med dårlig økonomi og bra for miljøet
siden vi gjenbruker utstyr i stedet for å skaffe nytt. Vi ville aldri
hatt mulighet til å operere med det maskinantallet vi har pr i dag
hvis det ikke var for Skolelinux - så tilgjengelighet er et annet
nøkkelord. Et tredje moment er sikkerhet og brukertilgang. Alle
brukerer opererer med egne brukernavn og passord, samt egne
brukerområder som kan tilpasses for både enbrukertilgang og for
samarbeid med andre.

Elever har godt av å se at det finnes andre alternativer enn de som
storindustrien selger på lisensbasis - på den måten trenes de opp til
å se flere muligheter og å foreta valg ut fra flere opsjoner.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ulempene med Skolelinux er nok utbredelsen og mangelen på kjennskap
til dette i skolenorge.  De som skal ta økonomiske avgjørelser rynker
på nesen og vil gå for det kjente og «sikre» selv om det koster mye
mer. Man får rett og slett litt hetta av å ikke kunne noe – og unngår
dette for enhver pris.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I tillegg er mye av linux-systemet administrert av tekstkommandoer
og er lite intuitiv/visuell for oss som ikke er «inne i»
kildekodene». Så problemet er nok mye godt at de som
utarbeider/drifter Skolelinux ikke helt klarer å sette seg ned på
skoleadministratorens nivå når det gjelder problemer og
utfordringer. Men dette er nok en utfordring alle administratorer
sliter med uansett OS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Derfor har vi valgt å støtte oss til BzzWare AS for assistanse i
drifta slik at jeg har kunnet konsentrere meg mer om kabling, skifting
av komponenter, veiledning av lærere og elever, vedlikehold av
skrivere og annen daglig drift.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Elevene mestrer Skolelinux helt fint.  Så lenge Internett
(Iceweasel) og Libreoffice (Openoffice) fungerer er 90% av
skolehverdagen velfungerende. I tillegg brukes jo en del av den
pedagogiske programpakken bla. i forhold til matematikk og geografi,
men det er såpass mye bra på nett om dagen, så disse programmene er
mer som krydder å regne.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg skulle ønske neste versjon av Skolelinux kunne komme litt
mindre stappet med programmer, for halvparten blir aldri brukt, eller
fungerer ikke uansett.  Hva med et pedagogisk panel av lærere/IKT
ansvarlige som kunne sagt: disse programmene skal være standard, så
får resten være slike man kan legge til ved behov – det kan lett bli
en jungel å bevege seg i.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg ønsker meg også en mer grafisk versjon av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bzz.no/lwat/trac/trac.cgi&quot;&gt;Lwat&lt;/a&gt; hvor man kan krysse
ut de som f.eks ikke skal ha internett-tilgang en dag pga
eksamen/tentamen, samt en noe enklere brannmurløsning hvor man kan
stenge for en del (få) sider på en enkel måte.  Jeg liker godt
Skolelinux sin ideologi om at filteret skal trenes i hodet på eleven –
men av og til skulle jeg ønske at f.eks Facebook og Youtube kunne vært
koblet vekk en periode for å få bedre utnyttelse av tid og
ressurser. Disse to nettstedene er nok mye av årsaken til at mange
lærere holder igjen databruken noe mer enn man kunne ønske.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Jeg benytter nesten bare fri programvare til daglig. LibreOffice,
Iceweasel (Firefox), Thunderbird til e-post og Gimp til
bildebehandling.  Vi har PHP-Nuke-oppsatt hjemmeside. Det eneste som
jeg ikke har fått helt til enda er videoredigering - her må man vel
innrømme at Mac er hakket over, men da er vi igjen over på å se hva
som egner seg best, og ta valg ut fra det. Folk flest lever i
villfarelsen om at regneark HETER Excel og tekstbehandling HETER
Word. Dette er en misforståelse som jeg bruker mye energi på å
diskutere og &quot;åpne sinn&quot; på Microsoft-slaver.  Dessverre er det mange
IKT-ansvarlige som også har låst seg på at det eneste saliggjørende er
Bill G sine produkter.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For å komme lenger i utbredelsen av Skolelinux tror jeg det må mer
fram i nasjonale medier, samt komme bedre fram hva økonomien i dette
valget vil være – samt mulighetene. Fri programvare er en berikelse og
gjør oss i stand til å utføre arbeidet i skolen uten å måtte legge
igjen tusener på tusener i Bill Gates lomme.. Få ETT nettsted med
forståelig veiledning av installasjon/oppgradering og ETT forum med
konkrete feilrettinger og problemer, så tror jeg vi kunne kommet et
par skritt framover. Ellers tror jeg bare at ildsjelene må fortsette å
skinne – kanskje flere enn oss følger etter på veien.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
allowing users to check their local email account without providing
any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
and also available from &lt;a href=&quot;https://vimeo.com/38601767&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt;
and download as a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;kmail-kerberos-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
  &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Download video as
      &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Større PC-tetthet i skolen med Skolelinux?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St_rre_PC_tetthet_i_skolen_med_Skolelinux_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Den siste uka har det vært en del skriverier om hvor store
forskjeller det er mellom skolene når det gjelder digital kompetanse.
Et eksempel er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/891660/bekymret-for-it-i-skolen&quot;&gt;oppslaget
i Digi&lt;/a&gt;.  Diskusjonen fikk meg til å bli litt nysgjerrig på om
Linux-skoler har større PC-tettet enn snittet i landet.  Grunnlaget
for diskusjonen har vært undersøkelsen
&lt;a href=&quot;https://iktsenteret.no/ressurser/monitor-2011-skolens-digitale-tilstand&quot;&gt;Monitor
2011&lt;/a&gt;, som bruker informasjon fra
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.wis.no/gsi&quot;&gt;Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem&lt;/a&gt;
(GSI).  GSI-data kan lastes ned fra web og jeg lastet ned en Excel-fil
(intet åpen standard-valg tilgjengelig) med navn på alle skoler,
hvilke kommune de befinner seg i og hvor mange elever pr. elev-PC de
har rapportert inn.  For å få en ide om svaret trenger jeg deretter å
vite hvilke skoler i landet som bruker Linux, slik at jeg kan slå dem
opp i GSI og finne ut hvor stor PC-tetthet de har.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg vet om skoler i Balsfjord, Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik,
Nittedal, Nord-Odal, Randaberg og Sunndal som bruker Skolelinux eller
andre Linux-varianter.  Jeg tror det er flere enn de 56 skolene jeg
har klart å identifisere de siste dagene, men har ikke klart å få det
bekreftet med offentlige kilder.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Monitor 2011-rapporteres side 95 forteller at det &quot;ifølge GSI
(20120-2011) er det 3,11 elever per datamaskin når vi tar med alle
grunnskoler (1.-10.trinn)&quot;.  For de 56 Linux-skolene jeg har klart å
koble mot informasjon i GSI er det 2,28 elever per elevdatamaskin,
hvilket betyr at det er 36% høyere PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler enn
landsgjennomsnittet.  Linux-skolen med høyest tettet blant de jeg har
notert -skole er Flora ungdomsskule i Flora kommune med 0.82 elev
pr. PC (482 elever, 588 elevdatamaskiner).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux gir datamaskiner lengre levetid, og en kan dermed få
flere operative datamaskiner for samme budsjett, i tillegg til en
rekke andre fordeler.  Kan det være forklaringen på forskjellen?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tallene må tas med en liten klype, da GSI ser ut til å ha endel
feilføringer.  Jeg synes i hvert fall en skole med 423 elever og 9
elevmaskiner ser mistenkelig ut.  Eller en skole med 346 elever, 0
elevmaskiner, som er et annet ekstremt eksempel jeg fant.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Takk til Sturle Sunde, Klaus Ade Johnstad, Ole-Anders Andreassen og
Trond Mæhlum for innspill om skoler med Linux.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
Squeeze release&lt;/a&gt; was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
long time Linux user in United Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
weren&#39;t able to convert many of them into sustainable
installations.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
these things we decided to try it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
from that I have always believed in the same &quot;sustainable computing&quot;
goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
proprietary software everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As a newcomer I&#39;m just finding out who&#39;s who in the community and
how you&#39;re organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I&#39;m not sure if
that counts...)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
the notion of &quot;computer&quot; means simply &quot;proprietary office
applications&quot;.  However, schools today are experiencing budget
constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
realised that we need people with programming skills, so they&#39;re
putting coding back in the curriculum! And it&#39;s encouraging that the
first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu users in this country has to be part of it.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
believe is a very efficient work flow.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The documentation is written in a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in&quot;&gt;moinmoin wiki&lt;/a&gt; (see for example
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;the
Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;) with support for exporting the content as
docbook XML.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
.pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
with the translated text.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
images.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
issue is that &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in/DocBook&quot;&gt;the docbook support
we use in moinmoin&lt;/a&gt; is not actively maintained.  The docbook
support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc&quot;&gt;debian-edu-doc
package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>NUUG-presentasjon: Skolelinux - ferdig oppsatt skolenettløsning</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_presentasjon__Skolelinux___ferdig_oppsatt_skolenettl_sning.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag presenterte jeg ny versjon av Skolelinux for NUUGs medlemmer.
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hungry.com/~pere/mypapers/20120313-skolelinux-squeeze.html&quot;&gt;Lysark&lt;/a&gt;
er tilgjengelige allerede og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;video-opptak&lt;/a&gt;
kommer så snart videogruppa til NUUG får publisert den.  Jeg kom på
endel punkter om nye ting i Squeeze-utgaven under veis som jeg burde
hatt med, og har sikkert skrevet noe tull på lysarkene som jeg ennå
ikke har oppdaget.  Denne presentasjonen ble smurt ihop på veldig kort
tid, og jeg rakk ikke finpusse den.  Håper den kan være lærerik
likevel.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Kåre Nordby</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__K_re_Nordby.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Første ut i serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet etter at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;ny
versjon av Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; ble lansert i helga, er nylig valgte
styremedlem i foreningen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
Skolen&lt;/a&gt; (FRiSK) som organiserer
Skolelinux-utviklingen og daglig leder i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt;, selskapet
prosjektet opprettet som et tilbud til skoler som ønsket en
kommersiell samarbeidsparter.  Det bør nevnes at jeg er styremedlem i
Skolelinux Drift AS og styreleder i selskapets hovedeier stiftelsen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/&quot;&gt;SLX Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;
som beskytter verdiene til Skolelinux-prosjektet, og kjenner Kåre den
veien.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg har siden januar 2010 vært daglig leder i Skolelinux Drift AS,
som leverer support, installasjon, tilpasning, drift, og opplæring på
Debian Edu / Skolelinux. Fra 2012 er jeg valgt inn som styremedlem i
FRiSK.  Min forrige jobb var som KAM i Redpill Linpro (som er en av
eierne i Skolelinux Drift).  Før det var jeg daglig leder i et eget 7
manns konsulent selskap som også startet med fri programvare mot
slutten.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg hørte om det først når jeg jobbet i Redpill Linpro.  Men jeg
har også en datter som går på en friskole, som også bruker Skolelinux.
Som kjent har ikke friskoler de samme økonomiske rammebetingelsene som
offentlige skoler, så for dem var det det absolutt beste alternativet.
De anser også Skolelinux som et stabilt system, som bare går og går (i
motsetning til det lille Windows-baserte nettverket de har på
admin-siden).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sentralisert drift av tynne og diskløse arbeidsstasjoner. Således
lydløse og raskere arbeidsstasjoner som er bedre i klasserommet.
Lengre levetid på PC&#39;er.  Store besparelser på maskinvare og drift. Og
så klart fjerning av alle lisenskostnader. Personlig synes jeg også at
mange av programmene er bedre enn alternativene. Men dette er ofte en
smakssak og avhengig om man må ha det man er vant til fra før.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For lite kjentskap til løsningen.  Noen ganger for dårlig
kompatibilitet med arbeidsstasjoners/bærbare maskiner sine
nettverksdrivere eller skjermkort. Men dette løser vi i skolene ved
standardisering. Ellers er det få, om nesten ingen, av de kjente
maskinvare / infrastruktur leverandørene til fylkes- / kommuner som
tilbyr denne plattformen.  Skal dette endre seg så må kommunene selv
sette slike krav til leverandørene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Har brukt OpenOffice.org siden starten (2001 ?), Kun Linux på
desktop siden 2005. Bruker i dag Kubuntu, Libreoffice og ymse annet
programvare til ulik kontorbruk som er lett å installere / teste via
alle programarkivene som finnes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fortsette å presentere flere av de gode eksemplene hvor Debian Edu
/ Skolelinux brukes i kommuner og enkeltskoler.  Vi må få bedre frem
at det er mulig tilknytte både Windows og Mac klienter på denne
plattformen (selv om det vil øke driftskostnadene).  Dette gjøres
mange steder.  Spesielt er det mange lærere som ønsker å bruke
Windows/Mac-bærbare, gjerne som sin private PC også. Det er også mulig
for kommunen å integrere med Active Directory i stedet for OpenLDAP
som kommer med ut av boksen (selv om også dette øker kostnadene).
Dette vil muligens bidra til å fjerne noe motstand hos noen
potensielle brukere / driftpersonell for å ta i bruk noe
nytt. Fremveksten av mobile brukere og nettbrett går i vår favør.
Brukerne blir kjent og vant til flere nye operativsystemer /
brukergrensesnitt. Så utviklerfellesskapet bør jobbe videre med å
integrere flere nye klienttyper, som ultra lav-kostklienter og
nettbrett (blant annet fri programvare-alternativet
&lt;a href=&quot;http://makeplaylive.com/&quot;&gt;Spark&lt;/a&gt; med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merproject.org/&quot;&gt;Mer OS&lt;/a&gt; og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://plasma-active.org/&quot;&gt;KDE Active Plasma&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; based
on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
you have not done so already.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I plan to present the new version at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;a NUUG
meeting&lt;/a&gt; on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
in Oslo, Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Inspired by &lt;a href=&quot;http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/&quot;&gt;the
interview series&lt;/a&gt; conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
more international audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
and am happy to share the response with you. :)


&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn&#39;t really improve my setup. I
did various desperate searches for things like &quot;school Linux server&quot;
and ended up in a document called &quot;Drift&quot; something or other. Reading
there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
doesn&#39;t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
Japan.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
who don&#39;t need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
multiplies. For example, backup wasn&#39;t working properly in Lenny. It
took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
help.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
(customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
house, that&#39;s very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
are not impressed when their USB drive doesn&#39;t work, or their browser
doesn&#39;t play flash, for example.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 7 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
also available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/37675399&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt; and
download as a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;gosa-mass-user-create-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
  &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
    &lt;p&gt;Download video as
      &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 4 Mar 2012 18:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
candidate for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
need a software solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 3 Mar 2012 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
/ Debian Edu project&lt;/a&gt; initiated a student project to create a tool
for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called &quot;stopmotion&quot;,
was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
year...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
name,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/&quot;&gt;linuxstopmotion&lt;/a&gt;.
The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
Internet search engines (try to search for &#39;stopmotion&#39; to see what I
mean). I&#39;ve been following
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community&quot;&gt;the
mailing list&lt;/a&gt; and the improvement already in place and planned for
the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
Check it out. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Frode Danielsen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Frode_Danielsen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Frode_Danielsen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:35:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet møter vi
denne gangen Frode Danielsen, som er leder for en IT-virksomhet som
passer på IT-løsningen til flere kommuner i Hedmark-området, der noen
av dem bruker Skolelinux i dag.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Daglig leder i &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hedmarken-ikt.no/&quot;&gt;Hedmark
IKT&lt;/a&gt;. En interkommunal IKT-virksomhet for Stange, Nord-Odal,
Kongsvinger, Grue, Løten og Hamar kommuner. Vi er 32 ansatte&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har vært i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet i flere
sammenhenger, blant annet gjennom et par piloter som ikke har ført til
noe konkret resultat.  Nå sist gjennom satsingen på skolelinux i Grue,
Kongsvinger og Nord-Odal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg tror alle løsninger har fordeler og ulemper, litt avhengig av
hvilket ståsted du selv har, så jeg unnlater å svare på dette.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ingen for min egen del, men vi har noe fri programvare i våre
løsninger.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg tror ikke man skal ha en slik strategi.  Man bør ha en strategi
basert på å løse fremtidige behov, og velge løsninger som støtter opp
under dette.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
candidate for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
need a software solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Knut Yrvin</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Knut_Yrvin.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Knut_Yrvin.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet, får vi nå
høre fra nyvalgt leder i foreningen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
Skolen&lt;/a&gt; og en av stifterne av Skolelinux-prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Knut Yrvin her. Jobber i Nokia med å fremme rammeverket Qt og QML
med tilhørende utviklerverktøy. Rollen er som leder av
friprog-samfunn. I fjor var jeg med å legge om utviklingen av Qt til
åpen forvaltning.  På den måten kan alle som bidrar til Qt gjøre det
på like vilkår.  Nå er det
&lt;a href=&quot;http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/12/22/qt-5-%E2%80%93-a-look-back-at-the-numbers/&quot;&gt;over
1000 utviklere&lt;/a&gt; som bidrar til Qt. Med overgangen til åpen
forvaltning er utviklingen av Qt mer åpen enn Linux-kjernen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg var en av initiativtagerne til Skolelinux i 2001. Skolene slet
med både utstyr og Internett-tilgang. De klarte ikke å møte
forventningene til data i skolen. Driften av PC-ene var uholdbar. Som
regel hadde rektor pekt ut en ivrig lærer til å passe på PC-ene,
gjerne naturfaglæreren. Mange lærere jobbet mye ubetalt overtid for å
vedlikeholde 30-40 datamaskiner på hver sin skole. Med 300 elever og
lærere som brukere, blir det fort mye mer arbeid enn de 4-8 timene de
kunne bruke på PC-drift. Skolene hadde kun en femtedel av
IT-budsjettet som ble brukt på PC-ene i rådhuset.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi erfarte at skolene hadde mye datautstyr som stod ubrukt. Skolene
manglet penger til Microsoft-lisenser. Selv med solide skolerabatter,
kostet Microsoft-lisensene gjerne like mye som PC-ene i seg selv over
en periode på 5-6 år.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Viktigheten av språklig mangfold og pedagogiske programmer var også
viktig for oss. Vi oversatte mange skoleaktuelle programmer til
nynorsk, nordsamisk og bokmål. Dette lenge før andre tok denne
oppgaven seriøst.  Allerede etter ett år hadde vi etablert et helt
arsenal av skoleaktuelle programmer på nynorsk, bokmål og
nordsamisk. Vi spredde vår ide om språklig mangfold til de andre frie
prosjekter internasjonalt. Resultatene ser vi i mange land. Det er de
frie programmene som kommer på brukernes morsmål. Det er en av flere
gode grunner til at fri programvare som LibreOffice, VLC, KDE og
Firefox konkurrerer ut godseid programvare mange steder i verden.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelene er at Skolelinux tilbyr over 100 skoleaktuelle programmer
på de norske språkene, uten ett øre i lisenskostnader. Systemet gir
enormt lave driftskostnader med diskløse arbeidsstasjoner og bærbare
med roaming.  Skolelinux krever også mindre av maskinvaren.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Man kan fint kjøre systemet med 512 MB RAM på en bærbar PC sammen
med en nettvideo i nettleseren og en presentasjon med
LibreOffice. Konkurrerende system krever fort 2 GB RAM for å få til
noe tilsvarende uten at det går ufattelig tregt. Skal man gjøre noe
nyttig, krever konkurrentene til Linux mye større harddisk. Skoler har
rapportert at de fort har fått 50% flere nye maskiner om de velger
Linux. Dette i tillegg til de årlige besparelsene ved å unngå
lisensbetaling til godseid programvare.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;De lave driftskostnadene gjør at delstater i Europa har titusener
av datamaskiner med Skolelinux i skolen. F.eks. er det under ti
personer som drifter 70.000 PC-systemer i skolene i Extremadura i
Spania. Det er slett ikke uvanlig at norske kommuner har 1500-2000
datamaskiner med Skolelinux.  Driften tar ett årsverk. Slår flere
kommuner seg sammen, kan de få samme sentraliserte stordriftsfordeler
som delstater i Tyskland og Spania.  Delstater som kjører Skolelinux
på alle skolene. Bare noen få personer sentraldrifter titusenvis av
PC-er.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den største ulempen for Skolelinux er motstand mot Linux fra
IT-sjefer i det offentlige. Dette er ledere som holder innlegg som
snytt ut av evangelist-håndboka til Microsoft. Dette gjøres i ett
arbeidsmarked med stor vekst i etterspørselen etter Linux-fagfolk i
privat sektor.  Etterspørselen har økt mer enn noe annet tekniske yrke
siste tiåret.  Åtte av ti ledere vil ansette Linux-fagfolk i 2012,
rapporterer jobbnettstedet Dice.com på oppdrag av Linux
Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det mangler 16.000 ingeniører og IKT-fagfolk i Norge rapporterte
arbeids- og velferdsetaten NAV. Linux-fagfolk kan velge svært
interessante jobber med alt fra apps på ledende mobilsystem laget med
Linux, sky- tjenester eller web-applikasjoner. De raskest voksende
teknologiselskapene i verden er ute etter Linux-fagfolk. Det være seg
Amazon, Google, Facebook og IBM for å nevne noen. Linux er kritisk
for å sikre veksten i markedet. Det sier seg selv at lønningene og
jobbmulighetene er bedre enn for andre tekniske yrker.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skal man lage apps for mobilen, smart-TV-en eller
underholdningssystemet i bilen eller på flyet, er det Linux som
gjelder. Med en slik konkurranse om Linux-kompetansen, kombinert med
motstanden mot Linux hos mange IT-sjefer i offentlig sektor, så
hindrer kommunene rekruttering av flere Linux- fagfolk. Skolene blir
tvunget til å velge dyrere og mindre komplette IT-system. De har
blitt hengende igjen slik IT var på begynnelsen av 2000- tallet. Dette
fordi IT-ledere ikke har tilpasset seg markedet det siste tiåret.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Når det er sagt, er Skolelinux svært enkelt å lære seg også for de
som ikke kan. Det viser alle lærerne som drifter systemet for
hundrevis og tusenvis av systemer. Det meste er på plass rett ut av
boksen. I tillegg er det solid med dokumentasjon med god hjelp på
nettet. Det er mange kommuner som har ansatt en lærer som først lærte
Skolelinux på sin skole, for så å drifte alle PC-ene i kommunen med
Skolelinux. Det kan fort være snakk om 1000-3000 datamaskiner på 10-15
skoler som sentraldriftes med en stilling.  Står man ordentlig fast,
kan man også kjøpe profesjonell hjelp fra selskap som støtter
Skolelinux. Det er flere slike selskap i Norge og i utlandet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Qt SDK, LibreOffice, Firefox, VLC og KDE-skrivebordet. Dette på et
Debian-basert GNU/Linux-system. Jeg bruker også noen morsomme
3D-spill. Idag kan jeg velge mellom over 30.000 Linux-programmer. Det
finnes ikke tid i livet å undersøke alle valgmulighetene. Derfor er
det bra med Skolelinux i skolen, da utvalget av programmer er
begrenset til hva som er aktuelt i skolefagene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi må selge hele Skolelinux forhåndsinstallert på maskinvare i hele
pakker med 50-100-1000 PC-klienter med servere. Dette kan selges til
enkeltskoler eller hele kommuner. Pakken må inneholde tjenermaskiner,
svært rimelige diskløse arbeidsstasjoner, nettbrett med Plasma Active,
og bærbare med roaming. Alt er godt testet med Debian. I et slikt
anbud er det mulig å legge til sentraliserte drifts- og
støttetjenester.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Man bør også selge sky-tjenester som læreadministrative systemet
Moodle og driftsovervåking. I tillegg så bør man slenge seg på med
presentasjoner de gangene LibreOffice og andre friprog-produkter
selges til kommuner.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Olav Dahlum</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Olav_Dahlum.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Olav_Dahlum.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet, får vi nå
høre fra et nyvalgt medlem i foreningen
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;Fri programvare i
Skolen&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Olav Dahlum, og er frilans oversetter, tester,
prosjektleder og bruker av fri og åpen programvare som
LibreOffice. Jeg er også et av styremedlemmene i FRISK.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg kom i kontakt med prosjektet i 2009, da jeg ble ansatt i
stiftelsen Åpne kontorprogram på norsk for å oversette og teste den
norske utgaven av OpenOffice.org. Arbeidet har hele tiden vært
koordinert sammen med Skolelinux, og mange av de samme menneskene er
involvert, så på den måten ble jeg en del av den utvidede
familien.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux handler i likhet med utdanningssektoren om å dele
kunnskap med andre, og det er dette som er hovedstyrken til
prosjektet.  Selv om Skolelinux hovedsaklig er involvert i utvikling
av programvare, er det også et sted der man kan utfolde seg uavhengig
av bakgrunn og ferdigheter.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Liten utbredelse og manglende støtte fra leverandører som leverer
pedagogisk programvare til skolebruk.  Kunne kanskje hatt flere
verktøy som letter administrasjonen ytterligere, slik at også mindre
erfarne databrukere kan utføre lett vedlikehold og rutinejobber.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg er nesten forpliktet til å si at jeg bruker LibreOffice... Jeg
bruker forøvrig frie og åpne operativsystemer basert på
operativsystemkjernen Linux, for tiden openSUSE 12,1 med KDE4.  Men
hvis jeg skal dra fram noen flere eksempler så er nok Mozilla Firefox
og Thunderbird to av de jeg bruker mest. I tillegg er jeg en flittig
bruker av OpenSSH, Irssi, Midnight Commander, Git, Subversion,
Translation Toolkit og Super Maryo Chronicles (litt gøy skal man ha,
og med to håndkontroller liggende er det ikke til å unngå).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi må få leverandører av pedagogisk programvare med på laget, men
også utvikle vår egen tilpasset det norske markedet.  Det er også
mulig å involvere utdanningssektoren direkte i arbeidet, for eksempel
gjennom studentprosjekter der elevene selv er med å utforme
programvare direkte eller indirekte gjennom aktive bidrag.  Dette gjør
ikke bare samarbeidet tettere, men fokuset på standarder og friheten
til å velge sin egen løsning vil kanskje stimulere interessen for
framtidig deltakelse i bransjen.  Vi som driver med fri og åpen
programvare ønsker oss ikke rene konsumenter, men tenkende og
selvstendige individer som kan være med å skape sin egen fremtid.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;New in the Squeeze version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; is the
ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from &lt;tt&gt;http://wpad/wpad.dat&lt;/tt&gt;, to
allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
change the global proxy setting by editing
&lt;tt&gt;tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat&lt;/tt&gt; and the change propagate
to all Debian Edu clients in the network.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
simple one, they can run arbitrary code):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
{
   if (!isResolvable(host) ||
       isPlainHostName(host) ||
       dnsDomainIs(host, &quot;.intern&quot;))
      return &quot;DIRECT&quot;;
   else
      return &quot;PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT&quot;;
}
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
would be used for
&lt;tt&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/tt&gt;,
and insert this extracted proxy URL in &lt;tt&gt;/etc/environment&lt;/tt&gt; and
&lt;tt&gt;/etc/apt/apt.conf&lt;/tt&gt;.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
javascript code is &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/631045&quot;&gt;no longer
able to build&lt;/a&gt; because the C library it depended on is now a C++
library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
known alternative is known at the moment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
announced, direct connections will be used instead.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
the network setup changes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The WPAD system is documented in a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01&quot;&gt;IETF
draft&lt;/a&gt; and a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol&quot;&gt;Wikipedia
page&lt;/a&gt; for those that want to learn more.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Axel Bojer</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Axel_Bojer.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Axel_Bojer.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet har jeg
fått en av oversetterne som har vært med siden starten i tale.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Axel Bojer og er datalærer, tysklærer, oversetter med
mere.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tror jeg så en annonsering på nettet i slutten av 2001 og ville
være med som oversetter.  Jeg kom med på en utviklersamling og
prosjektet var da helt i starten.  Det var spennende å være med mens
prosjektet vokste til og utviklet seg.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg har «alltid» vært språkinteressert og hadde nettopp startet med
Linux og tror jeg tenkte det passet å bidra.  Var også glad for å få
en Debian-distribusjon, og ville gjerne bruke den selv.  Til å begynne
med brukte jeg først Mandrake og så Debian. Og siden jeg oppdaget at
det ikke var noen mulighet for å bruke den som enkeltstående i lang
tid, så gikk jeg etterhvert over til Kubuntu&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Løsningen er forholdsvis lett å sette opp, gratis, fri programvare
og gjør det mulig å gjenbruke eldre maskiner.  Det fine med Debian er
at det er stabilt og har en veldig stor mengde programmer. Jeg liker
også apt.  :-) Jeg liker også friheten ved Linux og muligheten til å
delta og forme sin egen datahverdag.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux er for lite kjent og for sent ute med å gi ut nye
versjoner.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Da jeg selv i hovedsak bruker Kubuntu, så kan jeg egentlig ikke
svare så detaljert rundt ulempene med Skolelinux.  Hovedårsaken til at
jeg bruker Kubuntu er nok at da vi begynte med det mener jeg det ikke
var noen annen løsning.  «Vandrende arbeidsstasjon» mener jeg ikke
fantes da.  Dessuten ville jeg ha siste versjon, da den KDE-versjonen
som var i Skolelinux den gangen var en god del enklere (tror det var
KDE 2) var dårligere i mine øyne enn versjon 3.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg bruker blant annet Kubuntu, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox,
Kate, &lt;a href=&quot;http://comix.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;Comix&lt;/a&gt; og Konsole.  Og
en hel haug andre ved behov :-)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Har oversatt Comix selv, men det er jo ikke skjedd noe med Comix
siden 2009, så den er det nok bare jeg som har.  Om andre vil ha den
gir jeg den gjerne videre.  Ser at noen har startet på
&lt;a href=&quot;http://mcomix.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;MComix&lt;/a&gt; siden jeg så på så
på dette sist, så nå er jeg igang med å teste og oversette den
også.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det viktigste er å forankre beslutningen i kollegiet og med de som
er ansvarlige for å vedlikeholde og bruke datamaskinene.  Flest mulig
bør være med på å holde det (sosialt) vedlike, kjenne og støtte
prinsippene. Som enkeltmannsprosjekt blir det lett veldig sårbart,
særlig når (Skole)linux ennå i stor grad er en motkultur og ikke noe
en stor nok andel av beslutningstakere, brukere osv kjenner til og
bruker.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg tror det viktigste er å fortsette å holde fri programvare godt,
oppdatert, minimere antall feil, ha en god kontakt med brukerne og
attraktivt og spennende programmer. Beholde alt som er bra og ha det
tilgjengelig samtidig som man tilbyr det nyeste og rareste for de som
vil ha det.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 5 Feb 2012 09:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Since the Lenny version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, a
feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
in the morning.  This is done using the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html&quot;&gt;shutdown-at-night&lt;/a&gt; Debian package.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html&quot;&gt;nvram-wakeup&lt;/a&gt;
package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
10 minutes.  If this isn&#39;t working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I&#39;ve seen old
machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
those, you have to turn on the computer manually.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
&lt;tt&gt;/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night&lt;/tt&gt; to enable it.
Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 4 Feb 2012 13:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
publish the third beta version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
on the project announcement list.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
  10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
  the installation.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
  Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
  disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
  the amount of manual administration needed for printers.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
  for the local system administrator is created during installation
  instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
  and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
  membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
  up to date on the system.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
final Squeeze release is published.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next weekend the project organise a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;developer
gathering&lt;/a&gt; in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
will see you there?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
work, but there are other use cases as well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
not taken care of by this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For non-network devices, we provide the script
&lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; which
search through the &lt;tt&gt;dmesg&lt;/tt&gt; output for drivers requesting extra
firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/655507&quot;&gt;#655507&lt;/a&gt;), to allow PXE
installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
firmware packages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
initrd with extra firmware, the
&lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; script is
provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
PXE initrd with firmware packages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
network cards working.  For this,
&lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; is
provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
the same way as the other firmware related tools.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
non-free software, and it is their choice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
try.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skjermbilder fra nordsamisk installasjon av Skolelinux/Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skjermbilder_fra_nordsamisk_installasjon_av_Skolelinux_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skjermbilder_fra_nordsamisk_installasjon_av_Skolelinux_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;For morro skyld har jeg gjennomført en nordsamisk installasjon for
neste utgave av &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
(Squeeze) og knipset skjermbilder av resultatet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Som en kan se der er det noen oversettelser som mangler.  Det hadde
vært hyggelig hvis alle tekstene som vises i Skolelinux-installasjonen
ble oversatt til nordsamisk, men for å få det til må noen som forstår
språket melde seg til dyst.  Det er mangel på nordsamiske oversettere
av fri programvare.  Hvis noen starter raskt, så bør en rekke å
fullføre Wheezy-utgaven før den gis ut. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Se &lt;a href=&quot;http://d-i.debian.org/l10n-stats/&quot;&gt;oversetterstatistikk for
debian installer&lt;/a&gt; for detaljert status.  Jeg har tipset
&lt;a href=&quot;https://lister.ping.uio.no/mailman/listinfo/i18n-sme&quot;&gt;epostlisten for samiskoversettelser&lt;/a&gt;,
men det har vært veldig liten aktivitet der de siste årene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/01-isomenu.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/02-sme-lang.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/03-sme-place.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/04-sme-keymap.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/05-sme-profile.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/06-sme-autopart.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/07-sme-popcon.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/08-sme-rootpw1.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/09-sme-rootpw2.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/10-sme-firstuser.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/11-sme-firstusername.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/12-sme-firstuserpw1.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/13-sme-firstuserpw2.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/14-sme-part.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/15-sme-debootstrap.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/16-sme-tasksel.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/17-sme-wordlist.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/18-sme-tasksel.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/19-sme-ltsp.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/20-sme-grub.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/21-sme-finish-install.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-01-26-skolelinux-sme/22-sme-finish-message.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The next version of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
/ Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; will include a new tool
&lt;tt&gt;sitesummary2ldapdhcp&lt;/tt&gt;, which can be used to quickly set up all
the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
summary on how to use it to set up a new school.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
this is done, log on to the central server and run
&lt;tt&gt;sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a&lt;/tt&gt; in the &lt;tt&gt;konsole&lt;/tt&gt; to use the
collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
will look similar to this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
% sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.

Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.

Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
enter password: *******
% 
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
then to log into &lt;a href=&quot;https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/&quot;&gt;GOsa&lt;/a&gt;,
the web based user, group and system administration system to change
system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
and get their assigned names and group based configuration
automatically.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
original text, and have added it to the text now.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Paul Reidar Løsnesløkken</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Paul_Reidar_L_snesl_kken.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Paul_Reidar_L_snesl_kken.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I serien med intervjuer av folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-miljøet, har jeg nå
lyktes med å få tak i en skolemann som ikke er aktiv med utviklingen,
men likevel har vært med nesten siden starten av prosjektet.  Jeg
ønsker derfor velkommen til Paul Reidar Løsnesløkken, en mann med
mange års erfaring i bruk av Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg driftet tidligere IKT løsningen for skolene i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nord-odal.kommune.no/&quot;&gt;Nord-Odal&lt;/a&gt;.  I dag er jeg
IKT-konsulent for hele kommunen og samarbeider med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hedmarken-ikt.no/&quot;&gt;Hedmark-IKT&lt;/a&gt; for best mulig
tjenester til kommunen. Jeg har bakgrunn som elektronikkreparatør og
grunnskolelærer og har tatt en del fag innen IKT, i hovedsak
driftsfag. IKT i Nord-Odal kommune blir i dag driftet av Hedmark IKT
som er et samarbeid mellom Løten, Stange, Grue, Hamar, Kongsvinger og
Nord-Odal. Jeg er fortsatt &quot;IKT-personen&quot; på skolene i kommunen og
følger opp og gjør enkelte mindre endringer der.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Kommunen satset på Skolelinux i 2004.  Jeg var ikke med i
beslutningsprosessen den gang, men ble likevel med fra starten når
dette ble levert.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelene med Skolelinux er rask oppstart, sentral drift av
klientene, klienter som jobber raskt og effektivt, bedre
funksjonalitet på eldre utstyr og en ganske god programpakke med fri
programvare som følger med.  Løsningen med halvtykke klienter gjør at
prosessering skjer lokalt med alltid ferske maskiner.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux kan fungere godt på gammelt utstyr, men det er klart at
utstyr også blir for gammelt selv for Skolelinux.  I forbindelese med
at vi nylig fikk nye servere og ny installasjon kastet jeg ut ca 60
klienter som fortsatt var i drift etter at de var kjøpt godt brukt i
2004.  Noe var rundt 15 år gammelt, men var fortsatt i bruk. Noen
klaget på at det nå gikk veldig tregt på en del pedagogiske nettsider
med flash o.l. Det er fullt forståelig.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg fikk nylig et spørsmål fra ungdomsskolens rektor om jeg kunne
legge inn &lt;a href=&quot;http://freemind.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;FreeMind&lt;/a&gt;, et
tankekartprogram , på skolens elev-Windowsmaskiner. Lærerne hadde
vært på kurs og ville ta dette i bruk. Skolen har ca halvparten av
elevmaskinene på bærbare Windowsmaskiner. Da kunne jeg fortelle at
dette programmet allerede lå inne på den nye Skolelinuxløsningen
som nettopp var satt i drift, klart til bruk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har de bærbare maskinene på ungdomsskolen i domene med
Skolelinux.  Dette fungerer også meget bra nå. Elevene får opp en
midlertidig windowsprofil når de logger på.  Denne profilen slettes
etter at de logger av, noe som medfører rene profiler hver gang de
starter opp en maskin.  De må lagre i sin Skolelinprofil, noe som
medfører at de får tak i sine filer uavhengig av om de starter en
Windowsmaskin eller en Skolelinuxklient. Det er mye mindre trafikk i
det trådløse nettet etter at ikke hele profiler blir lastet opp til de
enkelte Windowsmaskinene og tilbake når man avslutter. Jeg vet ikke om
dette er standardoppsett i Skolelinux, men slik er vårt oppsett
nå.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har i flere år satt opp vår løsning slik at skriverkøer slettes
og skrivere startes hver natt.  Hyggelig å høre at dette nå skal bli
en standard i Skolelinuxløsningen.  Dette har vært en god hjelp for
oss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Elevene er lite opptatt av om de jobber på en Skolelinux eller en
Windowsmaskin bare de har de programmene de trenger og at det virker
når det skal brukes. Vi kjører mest mulig de samme programmene på
Windows som i Skolelinux, som f.eks Audacity og LibreOffice.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Lærere bruker hos oss Windows. Dette fordi de da selv har mer
kontroll over sin maskin, kan bruke den overalt, og kan legge inn
programmer selv når de trenger noe i forhold til kurs o.l de er
på. Jeg tror lærernes selvstendighet her gjør dem tryggere på IKT-bruk
generelt. Det at de av og til får opp advarsler og lignende gjør også
at de må tenke igjennom og spørre om ting rundt datasikkerhet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er en del programmer vi bruker som ikke finnes for Linux.  Mest
brukt er nok Photostory3 som brukes i mange sammenhenger, særlig på
ungdomsskolen, bl.a. til å lage herbarier (plantesamling) .  Dette
finnes gratis for Windows, men er ikke fri programvare.  Vi er opptatt
av at programmer elevene bruker på skolen også kan brukes gratis
hjemme. Det er også en del programmer som brukes til spesielle elever
som bare går i Windows. Det er viktig med fokus på funksjoner og ikke
på hvilket OS man bruker.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For oss er det kombinasjonen mellom Skolelinux og Windows som gir
oss en god og hel løsning. Skolelinux er best der de er gode.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Selv er det LibreOffice jeg bruker til daglig.  Jeg bruker selv en
Windowsmaskin. Jeg har benyttet en del fri programvare i forbindelse
med sjekking av trafikk i nettverk, slik som Wireshark, men dette er
jo ikke aktuelt for skolene. Jeg er generelt glad i programmer som
fungerer på både Linux og Windows og gjerne MAC.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er viktig at det benyttes programmer som elevene også kan ta i
bruk hjemme.  Det skal da være enkelt, lovlig og gratis for
elevene. Da er jeg ikke lenger veldig opptatt av om det kalles &quot;fri
programvare&quot;.  For skolene tror jeg &quot;gratis&quot; og &quot;funksjonelt&quot; er bedre
begreper enn &quot;fri&quot; i forhold til programmer.  De fleste skiller nok
ikke mellom &quot;fri&quot; og &quot;gratis&quot;. Det er nå svært mange elever som
benytter OpenOffice eller LibreOffice som sin primære kontorpakke
hjemme.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the Squeeze version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; soon
to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
first time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
labeledURI with &quot;http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux&quot; as the
default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
to see the page behind this new URL.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
called as &quot;&lt;tt&gt;ldapvi -ZD &#39;(cn=admin)&#39;&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to update LDAP with the
new setting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
from within Iceweasel instead.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 7 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
the second beta version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  If
you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
on the project announcement list.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 3 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; ready
for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
interesting.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;P&gt;The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
wrap up its tasks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
because I was typing.&lt;/P&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
/proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do &#39;find /&#39; to
generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
generate entropy.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The fix is in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation&quot;&gt;beta1
of the Debian Edu/Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version, and we
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu&quot;&gt;welcome more testers and
developers&lt;/a&gt;.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Peter Hansteen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Peter_Hansteen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Peter_Hansteen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Etter en lang pause er det klart for neste mann ut i min serie med
intervjuer av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-relaterte personer.

Denne gangen har jeg besøk av et avtroppende styremedlem i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRISK&lt;/a&gt;, og en mann
som har vært aktiv i Linux-miljøet i Bergen siden 90-tallet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Peter Hansteen, og jobber til daglig som seniorkonsulent
i EDB ErgoGroup i Bergen.  I praksis betyr det systemadministrasjon på
Unix (primært Solaris, men en viss komponent av Linux).  Men Solaris
er for meg et relativt nytt bekjentskap, hovedplattformen min har
generelt vært OpenBSD og til dels FreeBSD.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg husker ikke helt alle detaljene mer ;) - men jeg tror det var
gjennom news-gruppen no.it.os.unix.linux.diverse, efn-listen og
etterhvert også BLUG-miljøet her i Bergen.  Vi hadde et par
Skolelinux-sentrerte BLUG-møter for noen år siden, og det har vært et
par Skolelinux-utviklersamlinger her.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg bruker dessverre ikke Skolelinux daglig. Men slik jeg kjenner
prosjektet har det vært i stand til å ta opp i seg det beste av fri
programvare i mange kategorier, så fra et sysadmin-perspektiv ser det
ut som en svært behagelig sak.  For brukerne er det vel både en fordel
og en ulempe at det ikke er Windows. Men vi håper at fordelene med et
fritt system etterhvert vil bli åpenbare for både elever, lærekrefter
og foreldre.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vel, ulempen er vel først og fremst at andre aktører med mer
kapitalmuskel har klart å etablere seg som det både lærere og foreldre
føler seg trygge på, selv om det etter mitt hode ikke er noen grunn
til å være spesielt trygg på de kommersielle alternativene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Når jeg får bestemme helt selv, bruker jeg kun fri programvare. Da
helst med vekt på ting som kjører greit på OpenBSD.  Hjemme er det
OpenBSD, Ubuntu eller FreeBSD vi bruker.  På skrivebordet er det en
avveining mellom Gnome, KDE eller hva-det-nå-heter som er
standardvalget i Ubuntu, ellers er det de kjente tingene som
LibreOffice, Emacs, mplayer.  På server er det selvfølgelig Apache,
for overvåking både OpenNMS og Nagios (det bare ble sånn, og
forskjellige siter).  Jeg skriver til tider om slikt jeg holder på med
på
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bsdly.blogspot.com&quot;&gt;http://bsdly.blogspot.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Men vi må nevne at selv vi har en Microsoft-ting som vi slår på når
vi av en eller annen grunn må. Det betyr igjen vanligvis når en
mobiltelefon eller en annen lukket elektronisk dings krever kontakt
via en slik for å få oppdateringene sine.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hadde vi hatt det rette svaret på det spørsmålet, så hadde vi
gjerne hatt Skolelinux som førstevalg på alle skoler ;)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Men jeg tror vi må legge vekt på flere forskjellige ting.  En helt
sentral sak er å fokusere på fri programvare og åpne standarder som de
demokratiske verdiene de faktisk er.  Det har kanskje kommet litt for
mye i bakgrunnen i forhold til strevet etter å lage det mest mulig
&#39;brukervennlige&#39; systemet.  Det er en tung vei å gå, så det er
forståelig at freenix-aktivister heller velger å skrive kode og annet
som er mer lystbetont. Mer praktisk tror jeg vi må gjøre i alle fall
to ting: For det første sørge for å fortsette med å levere det best
mulige frie produktet, slik at det er lett å både komme i gang og
holde systemene i daglig drift, og for det andre 2) spore opp mulige
aktivister der de finnes, via lokale brukergrupper, sosiale medier
eller annet og sørge for at de fortsetter å være aktive.  Mer og
mindre uformelle treff kan være nyttig i tillegg til de mer
organiserte møtene med foredrag, konferanser og utviklersamlinger.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Frode Jemtland</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Frode_Jemtland.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Frode_Jemtland.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Neste mann ut i min serie med intervjuer av Skolelinux-relaterte
personer er en tidligere styreleder i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRISK&lt;/a&gt; som var med
fra starten av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mitt navn er Frode Jemtland, og jeg jobber i Hedmark IKT, som er et
driftsselskap for Grue, Hamar, Kongsvinger, Løten, Nord-Odal og Stange
kommuner. Her er jeg leder for avdelingen Løsninger og Arkitektur. Vi
har i hovedansvar for servere, infrastruktur og løsninger som
helhet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jobbet i IBM fra 2000, og da spesielt med Linux. Dette var da et av
de mest tydelige linux prosjektene i Norge, og her ønsket jeg å
bidra. Var aktivt med i prosjektet i 4-5 år.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelene slik jeg ser det er den sentraliserte driftmodellen, og
alle de vel gjennomtenkte løsningene som er inkludert i denne
løsningen. Samtidig er det basert på en stabil, og godt kjent
plattform. Dette vil si at man har en løsning som skal være mye
tilgjengelig, og hvor det er relativt enkelt å få tak i personer som
kan mye om den grunnleggende plattformen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;De største utfordringene med en løsningen er at den er intensiv på f.eks
nettverk. I seg selv ikke et problem for en enkelt skole, men skal løsningen
kjøres i større skala, med sentraliserte servere, så gir dette noen
utfordringer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Utifra hva jeg har sett på større installasjoner så er det ikke så
enkelt å skjønne, hva som bør gjøres for at den skal skaleres opp, og
da ta godt vare på alle sider av dette, ikke bare mer server å fordele
last/trykk, men hvordan også beholde robustheten og fleksibiliteten i
løsningen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;En annen utfordring er at stadig flere produkter som skal brukes i
skoleløsningen ikke er laget til å kunne brukes i en
skolelinuxløsning. Det blir derfor fort mye skreddersøm i de
forskjellige installasjonene, for å få diverse pedagogiske programmer,
webløsninger, smartboards, m.m. til å fungere.  Man er også en for
liten kundebase til at leverandørene ønsker å gjøre noe med
utfordringen. Problemet overlates til oss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er også en kontinuerlig utfordring rundt problemet med å holde
programvare på stabile versjoner, kontra å få ny funksjonalitet. Dette
er jo en konflikt mellom oss som ønsker å drifte en stabil, og
kostnadseffektiv løsning, mot sluttbrukerne som ønsker seg funksjoner
det er vant med fra andre løsninger, eller som de må ha for at et
eller annet nytt produkt skal fungere i løsningen. Dette er en
utfordring også for andre plattformer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;En siste utfordring som ikke har noe med løsningen å gjøre, men med
det omkringliggende miljøet denne skal kjøre i, er at de enhetene som
skal drifte dataløsninger for kommuner og fylkeskommuner begynner å
profesjonaliseres, og er da avhengig av å ha standard løsninger for å
drifte store brukermasser. MS er selvsagt klar over dette, og har jo
nå flere områder de begynner å bli veldig dominerende på. Den største,
og mest problematiske er katalogtjenesten.  Man får snart ikke tak i
større løsninger som ikke krever en AD. Når man da har store enheter
som drifter både kommunalt ansatte og skoler, så vil det være et
stordriftargument å standardisere på en katalog tjeneste, og da har
man ikke noe valg. Her er alle slike driftsenheter for små til å få
gjort om på dette. Her burde konkurransemyndighetene kommet på
banen. Men konkurransetilsynet i USA griper sjeldent (og ikke før det
har gått veldig lang tid) inn i monopolsituasjoner så lenge
monopolisten er et amerikansk firma, så da har vel ikke andre
myndigheter så mye de skulle ha sagt....&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Privat kjører jeg Debian på alle mine datamaskiner. Det gjør jeg
også på min jobbmaskin. Vi har også 15-20 linux servere av typene
SuSE, Debian, Redhat, CentOS m.m. Jeg bruker derfor mye fri
programvare. Av enkelt programmer kan sikkert masse nevnes. Hvis vi
skal begrense oss til daglig, så må jeg si: OpenOffice, Firefox,
Kontact, Kopete, Amarok,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://gramps-project.org/&quot;&gt;Gramps&lt;/a&gt;, Kate, ssh, bash,
rsync, backuppc m.m.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er et godt spørsmål, som jeg har lurt på selv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Argumentene som ofte har vært brukt om at ting koster mindre holder
ikke mål når man ser på hva som faktisk koster penger. Det er de
ansatte som er en kostnadsdriver. Det vil si at hvis man har et system
som den ansatte kan, så vil en kostnad på dette systemet kunne
forsvares ganske mye ved at den ansatte gjør dette raskere og
effektivt. Også uten å måtte eventuelt leie inn folk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg syns det er viktigere å fokusere på prinsippet med å velge fri
programvare, men det er også et felt hvor man fort møter lite
forståelse blant de ansatte i skolen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Her må nok strategien fortsette å være at de sentrale myndighetene
må sende tydelige signaler for hva de ønsker at offentlige enheter
skal gjøre. Det var mye positivt på gang ang. dette for et par år
siden. Både med eNorge og eKommune planene, men dette syns jeg har
stoppet opp. En del av dette kan jo kanskje være usikkerheten som
etter hvert har blitt, når man har sett kompleksiteten i de
prosjektene som har blitt igangsatt. Det har også blitt noe usikkerhet
i markedet ref. Sun, Oracle, Novell, Microsoft m.m.  Samtidig har jo
også de proprietære programleverandørene sørget for å endre sine
lisenser slik at man uansett ikke slipper unna kostnaden til deres
produkter, selv om man skulle velge alternativer. Da er det økonomiske
argumentet, som jeg nevnte tidligere, spilt ganske godt ut over
sidelinjen.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Marius Kotsbak</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Marius_Kotsbak.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Marius_Kotsbak.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Neste mann ut er Marius Kotsbak, styremedlem i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRISK&lt;/a&gt; og mangeårig
bidragsyter i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg er en systemutvikler/kybernetiker og jobber med dette til
daglig. På fritiden tester jeg ut/bruker mye fri programvare, og
bidrar med testing og utvikling når jeg ser stort nok behov for det og
jeg har noe å bidra med.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hmm, det er lenge siden, så det er nesten så jeg ikke husker. Jeg
hadde vel hørt om prosjektet i media før en gjeng i Trondheim startet
opp SPIST, Skolelinux-prosjektet i Sør-Trøndelag, hvor vi hjalp noen
skoler i nærområdet med å installere Skolelinux og finne brukt
IT-utstyr til disse. Det var moro å gjøre noe praktisk for å spre
Skolelinux, og å se hvor fort gjort det var å sette opp utrangerte
klientmaskiner og få disse opp som tynnklienter på helt nye datasaler
på skolene, kun med kostnaden til servere.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er et system spesielt skreddersydd for drift av et stort antall
klienter mot servere, og da spesielt i henhold til skolers behov.  Det
er enkelt og billig å installere og drifte, og det trenger ikke ny
maskinvare for god ytelse.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hardwarestøtten kunne vært bedre og i enda større grad
installerbart rett ut av boksen.  Distribusjonen har til tider hatt
litt gammel programvare pga. at den følger Debian sine utgivelser.
Kanskje man skulle vurdert en versjon basert på Ubuntu eller andre
distribusjoner i tillegg?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oi, det er ikke lite. Her er det jeg kommer på i farta.  Jeg bruker
Linux og Ubuntu, og på Ubuntu programene Firefox, Thunderbird,
Chromium, Pidgin, Digikam, OpenOffice, Wireshark, git og irssi.
Telefonen min er en Android, og der bruker jeg programmene K-9 Mail,
OI Shopping list, Shuffle, ZXing, OI Notepad og ADW Desktop.  På jobb
bruker jeg JBoss, Eclipse, uCLinux for Blackfin, RCF-CPP, Qt, Maven,
og boost-bibliotekene for C++.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;En bør fokusere på totalkostnader inkludert driftsbehov,
fleksibilitet, åpenhet og ikke låsing til en leverandør framfor sparte
lisenskostnader, samt programvarens kvalitet og fortrinn, og at den
fritt kan brukes på et ubegrenset antall PC-er, også hjemme hos
elevene.  En bør også forbedre den fri programvaren ved testing,
bugrapportering og kodebidrag om man kan, og ikke anbefale programvare
uten at man har forsikret seg at den har tilstrekkelig kvalitet,
ellers kan man lett oppnå det motsatte.  Tror en bør selge inn
konseptet til fylkes-/statsnivå, kanskje med bidrag til
utviklingsarbeid fra disse som alle landets skoler kan få glede
av.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Odin Hetland Nøsen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Odin_Hetland_N_sen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Odin_Hetland_N_sen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Mine bloggposter om Linux i skolene i Norge førte til at inspektør
og ildsjel på Harestad skole tok kontakt og fortalte at de bruker
Linux på sin skole, og lurte på om de kunne bidra til å gjøre
fordelene kjent.  Riktig nok bruker de ikke
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; på denne skolen,
men jeg synes dette er en god anledning til å gjøre flere fasetter
rundt Linux-økosystemet kjent, og tok et lite intervju.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mitt navn er Odin Hetland Nøsen og er en 70-modell. Jeg er bosatt i
Stavanger og jobber nå på 9. året som undervisninginspektør på
Harestad skole i Randaberg kommune (nabokommune til Stavanger).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I 2002 begynte daværende IKT-ansvarlige og jeg et arbeid på skolen
med å gå over fra Win98 til... noe annet. Vi testet en rekke
forskjellige løsninger, deriblant Skolelinux, men endte opp med
RedHat. Skolelinux var den gang ikke modent for det vi ville ha.  Jeg
har siden fulgt jevnlig med på hva skolelinux holder på med, men har
hele tiden vært bedre fornøyd med vår egen &quot;standardiserte&quot; løsning på
RedHat/CentOS og Fedora. Vi snuser for tiden på Ubuntu som løsning på
klientsiden.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I dag har vi på skolen vår en større linux-løsning med 400 klienter
som kjører en blanding av LTSP (tynnklient) og DRBL (tykk klient uten
harddisk) med en masse tjenere på serverrommet. Vi drifter hele
sulamitten selv med webtjener, eposttjener, webmail, filtjenere,
virtuelle tjenere osv.  Og IT-ansvarlig har en 80% stilling som
IT-ansvarlig - og så er han KoH-lærer i de resterende 20% :-)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Du kan få en ide om hva vi holder på med om du går inn på
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gnuskole.no/&quot;&gt;http://www.gnuskole.no/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For å ta brodden av frykten for at ildsjeler gjør skolen sårbar om
ildsjelene falle fra, har jeg forsikret kommunen og skolesjefen i
Randaberg om at det finnes godt kommersielle tjenester vi kan benytte
oss av - om det skulle bli nødvendig. Vi er tre stykker i kommunen som
nå har &lt;strong&gt;god&lt;/strong&gt; linux-kompetanse ift. å drifte et større
system.  IT-avdelingen i kommunen vil ikke ta på oss med ildtang -
selv om vi nok har større IT-kompetanse mot linux enn det de selv har
mot windows (de kjøper en &lt;strong&gt;masse&lt;/strong&gt; konsulenttjenester
fra ErgoGroup).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I kvantitet er Harestad og Grødem skole tilsammen et større
IT-system enn resten av Randaberg kommune + Kvitsøy og Rennesøy, som
kommunen også har driftsansvar for.  Vi har som sagt rundt 800
maskiner, mens kommunen med sitt driftsansvar har ansvar for rundt 500
maskiner. Det er selvfølgelig litt forskjell i hvor kritiske
tjenestene våre er, men det gir allikevel et litt rart bilde når
IT-avdelingen overhode ikke er interessert i å snakke med oss om
hvordan vi gjør ting :-)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fra linux-perspektivet (ikke bare Skolelinux) er det en fordel av
systemet er basert på fri programvare - og dermed fritt i ordets mange
betydninger. Det er alt vi trenger: stabilt, relativt enkelt å drifte
(tross alt - et større windowssystem er ikke enkelt å holde live det
heller), rimelig i innkjøp og drift, og sist, men ikke minst, det er
moderne for sluttbruker! Linux, i sine mange varianter,
&lt;strong&gt;ser&lt;/strong&gt; nytt ut, fordi det hele tiden blir
oppdatert. Derfor lever systemet opp til hvordan elever forventer at
et moderne GUI skal være (i motsetning til WinXP :-).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi var veldig pragmatiske da vi begynte med linux i skolen. Det var
billig, det fungerte og kunne bruke alle de gamle windows-maskinene
som &quot;nye&quot; tynne klienter.  I dag er vi mer bevisste fri
programvare-tilhengere.  Vi har oppdaget hva det er - og vi liker
det!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;En av de &lt;strong&gt;store&lt;/strong&gt; fordelene med fri programvare er at
vi kan installere tjenester vi ønsker å tilby brukerne våre - uten å
måtte tenke på om vi har råd til lisensene (fordi det er ingen). Alt
vi setter i produksjon er ut i fra brukernes behov og vår kapasitet
til å drifte dem. Vi skreddersyr tjenestene etter behovet og dermed
trenger vi ikke ende opp med å kjøpe en pakke der vi egentlig bare var
interessert i en liten del av den.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bruk av linux frigjør ikke økonomiske midler, fordi midlene til IKT
i skole er for få i utgangspunktet - men vi får så
&lt;strong&gt;mye&lt;/strong&gt; mer igjen for dem når vi bruker en linux-løsning
fremfor en windows-løsning. I praksis ser vi at vi måtte ut med det
dobbelte på budsjettet vårt om vi skulle hatt en tilsvarende
windows-løsning, som det vi i dag drifter med linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ikke all pedagogisk programvare er tilgjengelig. Det er en del
programvare i skolen som er laget med utviklerverktøy som bare virker
i windows, f.eks. Drillpro, LingDys/LingWrite. Det er også
&quot;programmer&quot; som bare virker om du har tilgang til Microsoft Office,
f.eks. AskiRaski.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi sliter også litt med at video-codecer ikke alltid er like lett å
få opp å gå på klientene. Det er alltid en eller annen videosnutt fra
nrk.no som ikke er så samarbeidsvillig, uansett mediaplayer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Alt :-) På skolen bruker vi det som finnes og som er nyttig. Det vi
bruker mest er Firefox (jobber med Chrome, fordi det er
&lt;strong&gt;mye&lt;/strong&gt; raskere med Flash enn Firefox), OpenOffice (skal
over til LibreOffice), GIMP osv. Standardpakken av
sluttbrukerprogrammer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;På tjenernivå bruker vi OpenWebMail (skal over til Zimbra), Exim
osv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Personlig bruker jeg de fleste programmer over flere plattformer,
men jeg har lagt meg til en vane å prioritere bruken av fri
programvare også i Windows 7 og OSX.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg er langt i fra sikker. For det første handler det mye om at
IKT-avdelingen i kommunen ofte er de som styrer hva som er IKT på
skolene - og de liker å bruke avtalene med Microsoft, som de garantert
har fra før.  Dessuten - Select 6-avtalen til skolene gjør Microsoft
skvettbillig.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi la vekt på effektiv drift av systemet - og at vi kunne øke
antall maskiner uten å måtte øke budsjett for utstyr eller personell
særlig mye, enn om vi hadde gått for en Microsoft-løsning. I praksis
ser vi at en ren linux-installasjon driftes til halve prisen av en
Microsoft-løsning.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har i praksis også sett at det lærerne (og elevene) liker er at
vi tilbyr &lt;strong&gt;veldig&lt;/strong&gt; mange tjenester som ikke er så
vanlige i en Microsoft-løsning. Det er ikke så vanlig at
&lt;strong&gt;elevene&lt;/strong&gt; også har epost, hjemmekontor osv. Det har vi
også brukt som et vellykket argument mot Microsoft.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den beste måten er selvfølgelig at noen bare bestemmer
det. Problemet er å få dem som har makt til å bestemme det til faktisk
å gjøre det ;-)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Astri Sletteng</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Astri_Sletteng.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Astri_Sletteng.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 27 Feb 2011 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;En dame som har bidratt lenge til fri programvare i skoleverket og
i foreningen som organiserer skolelinux-utviklersamlinger,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRISK&lt;/a&gt;, er neste
intervjuoffer.  Det er en glede å her presentere en lærer fra Håkvik.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Astri Sletteng. Jeg er lærer og IKT veileder ved Håkvik
skole i Narvik kommune.  Min bakgrunn når det gjelder IKT: Av formell
utdannelse har jeg lærerutdanning, Master i skoleledelse og IKT for
lærere. Har jobba som IKT veileder siden 2002.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det viktigste for meg som IKT veileder er å få fundamentert den
5. basisferdigheten, digital kompetanse ved skolen min på en god måte
slik at hele skolesamfunnet tar i bruk IKT i alle fag. Dette arbeidet
gjøres i nært samarbeid med skolens ledelse.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Min viktigste jobb som IKT veileder er å være motivator og pådriver
i IKT arbeidet ved skolen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jobber i en kommune hvor vi satser på Fri programvare. I 2004 ble
det gjort et politisk vedtak om at vi skulle innføre Skolelinux ved
alle skolene i kommunen. Jeg har dermed en god del erfaring med
Skolelinux, samt annen fri programvare som Open Office, Joomla, Moodle
etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Siden vi jobber med åpen kildekode kan vi få programmene og
produktene tilpasset vår bruk. Det er jo heller ikke en ulempe at
skolen kommer bedre ut økonomisk, men først og fremst er det viktig
for oss at vi har digitale systemer som gjør at vi kan følge
læreplanen i alle fag. Det syns jeg at vi kan gjøre gjennom
Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolen er avhengige av å ha folk på IT avdelinga i kommunen som kan
drive support, og være tilgjengelige når vi trenger hjelp. Det er en
ulempe at ikke alle på denne avdelingen nødvendigvis er god på
Linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har også noen utfordringer når det kommer til spesielle
programmer som enkelte elever er avhengige av ? og som ikke er
plattform uavhengige. Her har vi i Friprog-verden, men også
departement en jobb å gjøre.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolen vår bruker Skolelinux, Open Office, Iceweazel (Mozilla),
VLC, Tux paint, Scribus, FreeMind, GIMP, digiKam, Ksnapshot, GeoGebra,
Moodle (innført på alle klassetrinn + som et administrativt verktøy)
og Joomla som hjemmeside.&lt;p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er de jeg kommer på i farten. I tillegg har vi Smartboard
installert på server, men det regnes vel ikke som fri programvare?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Først og fremst trenger skolen oppetider på sine datasystemer. Syns
også at det at vi kan få tilpasset plattform og systemer til vår bruk
er en god strategi å bruke.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Rubén Romero y Cordero</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Rub_n_Romero_y_Cordero.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Rub_n_Romero_y_Cordero.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Styret i foreningen som organiserer skolelinux-utviklersamlinger,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;FRISK&lt;/a&gt;, er fullt av
flinke folk.  Denne gangen har jeg fått et ferskt styremedlem som
kommer fra Ubuntu-miljøet i tale.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Rubén Romero y Cordero, 81-modell, deltidspappa (50%) for en jente
på 6 år. Jobber i Oslo som Global Sales Executive hos Varnish Software
og til daglig har jeg kontakt med kunder fra hele verden. Min
forkjærlighet for fri programvare har gjort at jeg har nå flere års
erfaring med salg av slike løsninger (bl.a. fra Redpill Linpro og
Freecode) og mye innsikt og kunnskap om det globale IT-markedet.
Ellers er jeg involvert i flere prosjekter bl.a. er jeg Ubuntu
Community medlem, kontaktpersonen for Ubuntu Norge og driveren av
SpreadUbuntu marketing prosjektet og nå fersk styremedlem i FRISK. Jeg
har brukt GNU/Linux siden 1997.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Som Debian bruker siden slutten av 90-tallet var det uunngåelig å
ikke komme bort i Skolelinux. Dette var vel i slutten av 2001 når jeg
var student ved UiO. Flere år senere fikk jeg lastet og testet Venus
(Skolelinux 1.0) på release dagen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fri programvare bygges sten for sten i det åpne, slik at koden og
prosessen den lages på kan gjennomskues av andre enn de som har laget
det. Det er et vitenskapelig og gjennomsiktig måte å lage programvare
på.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skoler i vårt samfunn skal være steder hvor vitenskapelig kunnskap
deles til alle.  I dag har vi ikke et vitenskapelig tilnærming til
hvordan programvaren som brukes på skolen lages. Skolelinux bringer
inn at slik tilnærming i skoleverkets klasserom, siden
operativsystemet er en åpent platform som gir skolene muligheten til å
dra nytte av programvare som er laget av tusenvis av mennesker verden
rundt og som gir elevene så vel som lærerne muligheten til å bruke,
dele, forandre og forbedre OSet sitt uten begrensninger. I den
forbindelsen representerer Skolelinux også konkrete resultater utfra
samhandling på tvers av grenser.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Når det gjelder de tekniske fordelene av Skolelinux er jeg sikker
på at andre enn meg har allerede beskrevet disse bedre enn det jeg
kan.  Men jeg kan likevel tilføye noe: Skolelinux som sådan er en
community-drevet operativsystemplatform. Som i ethvert
community-prosjekt har alle Skolelinux brukere muligheten til å
påvirke retning av prosjektet og resultatet som gjenspeiles i
programvaren. Dette kommer sjeldent frem og jeg mener at det er noe
som burde fokuseres mer på.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;De største ulempene er:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Mangel på kompetanse&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Mangel av administrative verktøy som kunne hjelpe lokale IT
  avdelinger å bruke Skolelinux til mer enn bare en tjener for
  terminalklienter. Et eksempel: Zentyal sin web-dashboard.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bedre og mer intuitive administrative verktøy kunne løst deler av
problemet, men det er unektelig at ved bruk av Skolelinux må
IT-personalet vite hva de gjør for å få ting gjort riktig, eller i det
hele tatt. Med andre platformer er kompetansen enklere tilgjengelig og
løsningene kan fungere på en tilfredstillende, om ikke riktig
måte.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Har brukt GNU/Linux utelukkende sommitt skrivebord OS siden 2000. I
dag bruker jeg Ubuntu og gjør det meste med friprogramvare verktøyene
som er tilgjengelige der. Med over 20.000 programmer å velge mellom er
dette mer enn nok for de fleste brukerne.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Opplysning og pragmatikk.  Vi prøver å løse problemer med bruk av
programvare. De fleste utfordringene skolene har på IKT-siden kan
løses ved hjelp av friprogramvareverktøy i dag. Det som trenges er
opplysning, kunnskap og kompetanse.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Morten Amundsen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Morten_Amundsen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Morten_Amundsen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 23 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Denne gangen er det Tromsøkontoret til Friprog-senteret, og nyvalgt
styremedlem i &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;foreningen
FRISK&lt;/a&gt; jeg har fått i tale i min intervjuserie med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-folk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg heter Morten Amundsen og jobber i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprog.no/&quot;&gt;Friprog.no&lt;/a&gt;, men er for tiden leid
ut til &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bredbandsfylket.no/&quot;&gt;Bredbåndsfylket
Troms&lt;/a&gt; der jeg jobber med ett prosjekt som heter
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bredbandsfylket.no/skolefjoela.157417.no.html&quot;&gt;Skolefjøla&lt;/a&gt;&quot;
Vi ser på en åpen løsning som integrerer eksisterende lukkete
løsninger sammen med fri programvare. Målet er å gi elever og lærere
en plattform som de kan tilpasse utfra behov.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skolelinux har jeg møtt ved flere anledninger opp gjennom åra, både gjennom
entusiastiske skolelinuxbrukere og skeptiske &quot;forståsegpåere&quot; :-)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg husker en leverandør av et stort OS for noen år siden mente at
Skolelinux var kun for hackere og nerder og at ingen seriøse skoler
kunne ta dette i bruk.  Heldigvis er kunnskapen større nå og
skikkelige &quot;IT-folk&quot; søker alltid å utvide sin kunnskap.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ja det er mange fordeler. Uavhengighet, stabilitet, åpenhet, standarder
osv. Tror det er viktig at man ikke begrenser mulighetene på den plattformen
elevene skal jobbe.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det største hinderet er det vi opplever på andre områder rundt
fri programvare, nemlig kunnskap. For mange er det trygt å velge det vi
alltid har valgt. Fordi leverandørene rundt oss sitter på den kunnskapen og
de vi støtter oss på har den samme.  Hvis vi klarer å riste løs litt og
glemme gamle kriger mellom operativsystemer og  leverandører, men sette ned
hva som er viktig og velge ut fra det, så hadde man kanskje kommet ut med
litt andre resultat. Jeg tror IT-folk er konservative og velger tradisjonelt
og det er synd.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg bruker Ubuntu, Android, Jolicloud, Open Office, Zimbra, Picasa
og Firefox samt en bråte med tjenester som er webbasert. Det eneste
som er betalingslisens for er OSX.  Ser at jeg jobber mer og mer i
skyen og setter pris på alt jeg slipper egen klient til.  Derfor er
jeg veldig sjarmert av små kjappe operativsystemer som krever minimalt
av maskinvaren.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tror en blanding av krav og informasjon er veien å gå. Krav om
sikkerhet, oppetid og åpne standarder.  Informasjon om muligheter og
alternativer. Her har leverandører, IT-avdelinger og pedagoger en vei
å gå sammen. Det er til slutt LÆRING det dreier seg om, og da må man
få mest mulig læring for pengene man har.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Sturle Sunde</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Sturle_Sunde.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Sturle_Sunde.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Denne gang har jeg fått tak i en mangeårig unix-mann som etter
mange år ved Universitetet i Oslo, der jeg først traff ham, har
flyttet tilbake til vestlandet, og der bidratt til å revitalisere
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;-oppsettet i
Florø.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sturle Sunde, ansvarleg for skulenettet i Flora kommune.  Eg driv,
vidareutviklar og er andrelinje brukarstøtte for datanettet ved
skulane i Flora kommune.  10 skular og meir enn 700 maskiner med
Linux, medrekna tynnklientar.  Tidlegare jobba eg i mange år med
unix-drift ved Universitetets senter for informasjonsteknologi ved
Universitetet i Oslo.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er vanskeleg å svare konkret på.  Eg har drive med Unix og Linux i
alle år, og Skulelinux er eit godt kjent prosjekt i miljøet.  Det var
først i 2008, då eg tok til i min noverande jobb, at eg fekk bruk for
Skulelinux for alvor.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jobben min skulle vere drift av eit nytt skulenett i Flora kommune,
levert av eit firma eg ikkje vil reklamere for.  Systemet skulle vere
ferdig levert i september året før.  Dette viste seg å ta mykje lenger
tid, og i haustferien 2008 hadde dei endå ikkje klart å få opp ei
fungerande løysing.  Situasjonen var prekær for den største skulen i
kommunen med meir enn 500 elevar på ungdomssteget.  Skulen hadde brukt
Skulelinux før, og var tilfredse med det.  No hadde dei vore utan
fungerande datasystem i nesten eit år.  Difor fekk eg opp ein ny tenar
utanfor prosjektet og installerte Skulelinux på den.  Etter litt
justering av konfigurasjonen med god hjelp av #skolelinux på IRC, var
den nye tenaren oppe og gjekk med både tynne og halv-tjukke klientar.
Autentisering gjekk mot det nye systemet, slik at elevar og lærarar
framleis har same brukarnamn og passord over alt.  Dette berre
fungerte, og vi bestemte oss for å erstatte delar av løysinga vi
skulle få levert med Skulelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det høyrer med til historia at det nye systemet eg skulle drive frå
januar 2008 endå ikkje er ferdig levert.  Dei jobbar med saka, seier
dei, og har von om å fullføre leveransen i løpet av 2011.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er veldig mange.  Eg skal ta nokre få.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den viktigaste fordelen er at det igrunn berre er ei maskin å passe
på, og det er tenaren.  Med andre løysingar har ein gjerne programvare
og anna som skal vedlikehaldast på kvar enkelt maskin.  Med Skulelinux
kan alle feil rettast og alle program oppgraderast på alle maskiner
samstundes ved å gjere endringa som må til på tenaren.  Eg kan sitje
på kontoret og passe på alle tenarane i kommunen derifrå.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Tynne klientar gjer det mogleg å bruke eldre utstyr lenge, so lenge
tenaren er sterk nok.  Ein liten tenar med eit par halv-moderne CPUar
og 2 GiB RAM held lenge for eit typisk klasserom med 30 tynnklientar,
og det er lett å utvide med fleire.

&lt;li&gt;Halvtjukke klientar gjer det mogleg å utnytte kapasiteten i litt
nyare maskiner betre, og avlaste tenaren.  Ingenting vert installert
lokalt på desse heller, og harddisken kan gjerne koblast frå.  Gode
halvtjukke klientar kan kjøpast brukt for under 1000-lappen, og det er
heile kostnaden.  Ingen lisensar eller anna på toppen, og det er ikkje
krav til kraftigare tenar heller.

&lt;li&gt;Det er Linux.  Vi har ikkje noko kluss med drivarar, dei berre er
der.  Heller ikkje med virus, dei finst i realiteten ikkje.  Eller med
elevar som klussar med installert programvare, for dei klarar ikkje å
øydeleggje for nokon andre enn seg sjølve.

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Skulelinux er lagt opp til å vere veldig lett å installere rett ut
av boksen på ein heil skule av ein interessert lærar.  Det er ofte ei
god løysing for skulen.  Å ha nokon til stades som kjenner systemet og
kan forklare enkle ting eller løyse problem der og då, er uvurderleg
viktig for ein stressa lærar fem minutt før det ringer inn.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All den ferdige konfigurasjonen gjer det tungvint å tilpasse
Skulelinux til eit system som skal fungere saman med mange andre
installasjonar i eit felles datanett for skulane i ein kommune.  Det
heile er prekonfigurert for ein skule, og utviding til mange skular
med eigne tenarar er ikkje berre enkelt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eg brukar mest alle små hjelpeprogram som føl med operativsystemet,
samt scriptspråket perl.  Elles er Firefox/Iceweasel, Gnome-terminal
og ssh i kontinuerleg bruk.  Av Linux-distribusjonar brukar eg både
Debian, Ubuntu, SuSE og RedHat dagleg.  Eg prøvar å finne det verktyet
som passar best til kvar del av jobben.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er to målgrupper ein må sikte mot.  Det eine er alle skulane som
manglar eller har eit lite tilfredsstillande opplegg i dag, og ikkje
har råd til å kjøpe noko nytt og blankpussa opplegg.  Der er det om å
gjere å gjere det enkelt for skulane å finne Skulelinux, og gjere det
enkelt for dei å få hjelp til installasjon på skulen.  Gjerne med
lokale kontaktpersonar.  Her er det dugnadsinnsats som må til, for
desse skulane har ikkje råd til å betale for dette.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den andre og kanskje viktigare målgruppa er dei meir eller mindre
profesjonelle kundane.  Alle store offentlege innkjøp, inkludert
innkjøp av nytt datasystem for skular, må ut på offentleg anbod.
Offentlege anbod er mykje meir lukka enn dei gjev inntrykk av, og både
regelboka og boka med triks for å sminke tilbodet er tjukk.  Det er
vanskeleg å komme inn utan eit solid salsapparat i ryggen.  Kanskje
Skulelinux skulle prøve aktivt å få seg eit partnarskap med eit av dei
store som gjerne vil sterkare inn på den offentlege IT-marknaden?
Nokon som kjenner triksa og har krefter til å ta opp kampen mot både
dårlege anbod og Rudolf Blostrupmoen IT AS.  Leveranse til skulane i
ein kommune er ein god måte å få ein fot inn døra som leverandør til
ein lukrativ kommunemarknad som kjøper alle tenester.  Ta kontakt med
nokon som er passeleg store og ikkje er Microsoft-partnar, og fortell:
«Vi har eit ferdig produkt som du kan selje.  Nei vi skal ikkje ha for
det.  Du kan gjerne gjere kva du vil med det, berre vi får lov til å
hjelpe deg.  Målgruppa er alle kommunar, og det er noko dei vil ha.
Det er eit godt produkt, brukt av mange og godt likt.»&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Embrik Kaslegard</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Embrik_Kaslegard.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Embrik_Kaslegard.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Neste ut i min intervjuserie med folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinuxprosjektet&lt;/a&gt; er
lærer, mangeårig bidragsyter på epostlistene og tidligere
Skolelinux-administrator på en skole i Hemsedal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Embrik Kaslegard, 1964-modell, fire barn (7-20 år). Begynte som
lærer i 1989 - har hatt IKT-ansvar siden første året i jobb. Har
jobbet som lærer/IKT-ansvarlig uavbrutt siden 1989. Jobbet med
Skolelinux fra 2004 til 2010. Nå har jeg fått ny arbeidsplass og er
40% lærer og 60% IKT med Windows XP, Win2003 server og et regionalt
IKT-regime som legger premissene og begrensingene for hva vi kan gjøre
på skolen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg leste en artikkel om en dugnadsinstallasjon av Skolelinux på en
skole på Jæren et sted. Tanken om dugnad og frihet appellerte til
meg. Da vi skulle bygge ny skole var det en del vi måtte spare på,
fordi vi beveget oss mot en kostnadssprekk. Kabling og investering i
PC-er var en av tingene vi sparte på. Derfor kjøpe vi 72 pc-er for 390
pr stk. En filtjener og en applikasjonsserver.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Fordelen er at så mye er satt opp fra starten. I tillegg er det
tydelig at pakka er laga for skoleverket. Brukerne har egne
skrivebord, tilgang på mange gode verktøyprogrammer. Vi slipper å
tenke på virus. Brukerne har ikke mulighet til å ødelegge
klientoppsett, men har gode muligheter til å endre eget oppsett. Dette
tror jeg er inspirerende og kjekt for mange brukere.  Mappestrukturen
er ferdig og det er &quot;enkelt&quot; å designe lokale mappestrukturer via
skeleton.  Noen av oss i skoleverket mener skolen skal være en
&quot;mot-kultur&quot;. Da er Skolelinux et av valgene man kan ta. Et annet er å
spise på indisk restaurant i stedet for Mc Donald&#39;s når vi er på bytur
osv.. Ordene deling, frihet, dugnad osv er positive ord i
skoleverket. Det er viktig at elevene blir bevisst dette.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Kompabiliteten er selvsagt et problem, selv om det er mindre nå enn
før.  For IKT-personer på skolene som skal drifte dette er det
problematisk med kommandoer i terminalen.  I tillegg er det alt for
mange programmer i Skolelinux som ikke blir brukt.  Jeg tror
Skolelinux er tjent med å tone ned begrepet pedagogisk programvare.
Slik jeg ser det finnes ikke denne kategorien programmer lengre slik
de gjorde før, som frittsående programmer som installeres på en
datamaskin eller på serveren.  Det finnes en del spesialpedagogiske
programmer, som Textpilot, LingDys, LingRight, AskiRaski, Ny i Norge
osv.  Men dette er programmer for enkelt-elever eller små grupper av
elever.  Det som bør være fokus er at alle undervisningsressurser som
lages for nettet skal være nettleseruavhengig.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;OpenOffice bruker jeg til vanlig kontorarbeide.  VLC bruker jeg som
videoavspiller og av og til streaming av film.  Gimp bruker jeg i
undervisningen til bildemanipulering. Firefox og Chrome er mine
favoritt-nettlesere.  Firefox har lenge vært førstevalget mitt, nå
bruker jeg mest Chrome.  Opplever den som raskere og smidigere enn
Firefox.  Ubuntu bruker jeg som dualboot på jobb-maskinen min i
tillegg til at alle PCer hjemme har en eller annen Ubuntu-distribusjon
installert.  Jeg bruker Clonezilla på Ubuntu 10.04 til kloning av
datamaskiner på jobb.  Det er selvsagt en haug andre frie programmer
jeg bruker men jeg bruker dem ikke daglig.  Jeg kan ramse opp:
recordmydesktop, cinelerra, acidrip, soundjuicer, audacity, NX
(no-machine), Kino, Rythmbox...&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg tror oppsøkende virksomhet er den rette strategien.
Ressurspersoner gjør avtaler med rådmenn, skolesjefer, rektorer.  Det
er slik konkurrentene gjør det.  Fokuset i slike samtaler bør være
kost-nytte.  Dersom personer med økonomisk ansvar ser at de kan få
like godt tilbud til mindre utgifter, tror jeg det er mulighet til å
få innpass.  Dersom de også kan få konkrete tilbud på drift i slike
samtaler, vil de kanskje bli litt mer interesserte i hvor mye penger
som faktisk går til IKT i skolene.  Det er også viktig at vi ikke
firer for mye på krav til datamaskiner.  Det er flott at Skolelinux
går på &quot;utrangert&quot; utstyr, men dette bør bare presenteres som et
alternativ.  Skolelinux-installasjoner med utrangert utstyr er ikke å
foretrekke dersom man kan unngå det. Det skaper ikke entusiasme hos
brukerne (elever og lærere) når de bruker gamle datamaskiner som går
tregt.  Det er kjempefint med skoler som har kommet seg frem til
Skolelinux og fri programvare av seg selv, men de lever på nåde.
Slike valg må fundamenteres hos skoleeier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Oppdatering 2011-01-16 22:40: Oppdatert svarene for de tre siste
spørsmålene litt mer tekst fra Embrik.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Viggo Fedreheim</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Viggo_Fedreheim.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Viggo_Fedreheim.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Jeg fortsetter min intervjuserie med folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinuxprosjektet&lt;/a&gt;.  Denne
gang er det en av folkene som har vært med lenge og som har tatt i
bruk Skolelinux på alle skolene i Narvik kommune som skal i ilden.
Han er styremedlem i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;foreningen
FRISK&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mitt navn er Viggo Fedreheim, og jeg er pedagogisk og teknisk
IKT-veileder for alle skoler i Narvik kommune.  Jeg drifter totalt 17
servere basert på Skolelinux og Debian. Jeg holder i tillegg noen kurs
mellom all driftingen. For tiden arbeider jeg med en sentral
LDAP-tjener for alle skoleservere samt våre Moodle- og
Joomla-installasjoner.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Gjennom en eller annen nettavis i 2001 der var det skrevet om
Skolelinux.  Artikkelen ga meg lyst til å prøve ut systemet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det startet i 2002 ved at jeg installerte en av de første utgavene
av Skolelinux på en standard pc på Solneset skole i Tromsø.  Denne var
oppe fram til desember 2003 da jeg sluttet på den skolen og begynte i
ny jobb i Narvik kommune.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt; I Narvik kommune var det i 2004 kun 2 servere på da totalt 15
skoler. Disse var Windows NT baserte. På disse to skolene var det lite
med maskiner.  Jobben med å få Narvik Kommune opp på akseptabelt nivå
virket å være formidabel.  Men med hjelp av gode kollegaer og leder
skrev jeg en IKT plan for Narvik kommune som ble vedtatt av politikere
i august 2004. I denne planen ble det bestemt at Narvik kommune skulle
bruke Skolelinux.  Her ble det også satt av midler til kabling av god
infrastruktur på alle skoler samt innkjøp av nye datamaskiner.  Så i
dag har vi 17 servere hvorav 13 er på Skolelinux, med ca 1500 klienter
basert på tynne, &quot;halvtykke&quot; og et stort antall bærbare pcer basert på
Kubuntu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Lisenskostnader, driftkostnader og hardwarekrav som er mye lavere
enn for andre systemer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Pedagogiske programvare som ikke fungerer mot Linux. En Stoooor
flaskehals og som gjør at Linux kanskje ikke blir valgt andre
plasser.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Eksempler er Relemo, Lindys (lingit sine programmer), 5plus
(matematikk).  Disse er programmer som ikke lar seg kjøre i Linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt; Men det ser ut for at mange leverandører går over til mer
nettbaserte programmer istedet for å installere lokalt.  Dette med
enkelte leverandører som ikke kan levere programmer til Linux er et
lite problem og over tid tror jeg at denne barrieren er borte.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Kjører Kubuntu på laptoper, Debian squeeze på stasjonær
kontorpc. Ut over dette arbeder jeg svært mye via konsoll mot andre
servere.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux-intervju: Arnt Ove Gregersen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Arnt_Ove_Gregersen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Arnt_Ove_Gregersen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 9 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Inspirert av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/&quot;&gt;intervjurunden&lt;/a&gt;
som Raphael Hertzog har startet med folk i Debianprosjektet, fikk jeg
lyst til å gjøre det samme med folk i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinuxprosjektet&lt;/a&gt;.  Håpet
er at de som til daglig bidrar til å fremme fri programvare i
skoleverket og utvikler en linux-distribusjon spesiallaget for
skolebruk kan bli bedre kjent og kanskje inspirere flere til å bidra
til Skolelinux-prosjektet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Først ut er nyvalgt leder i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;foreningen FRISK&lt;/a&gt; som
organiserer utviklingen av Skolelinux-distribusjonen.  FRISK trenger
alltid flere medlemmer, så
&lt;a href=&quot;http://medlem.friprogramvareiskolen.no/index.php?page=signup&quot;&gt;meld
deg gjerne inn&lt;/a&gt; hvis du vil støtte oss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;!-- Mitt navn er Arnt Ove Gregersen, jeg er en småbarnfar på 32 år som
for tiden bor Trondheim. --&gt;
Mitt navn er Arnt Ove Gregersen, jeg er 32 år og bor for tiden i Trondheim.

Her jobber jeg som systemutvikler i et firma
som heter &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geomatikk-ikt.no/&quot;&gt;Geomatikk IKT AS&lt;/a&gt;,
hvor jeg er på et Vegmeldings-prosjekt for Statens Vegvesen. På
fritiden er jeg styreleder i FRISK (Fri programvare i skolen) og
bidrar til bl.a. Skolelinux-prosjektet når jeg får tid til det. Det er
primært hjemmesiden til Skolelinux-prosjektet og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxveiviseren.no/&quot;&gt;Linux-veiviseren&lt;/a&gt; jeg har
jobbet med her, men jeg har også gjort en del arbeid i forhold til
FRISK sin hjemmeside.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg var på en presentasjon av prosjektet i regi av Knut Yrvin på
Gløshaugen i Trondheim, hvor jeg fattet stor interesse for prosjektet
og ville hjelpe til så godt jeg kunne.  Dette var vel i 2002 eller
2003.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg hadde fra før hørt om prosjektet fra før og syntes tanken bak var
ganske fin, men hadde ikke noen interesse av bruke min egen fritid på
det selv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I etterkant av presentasjonen startet jeg og noen andre fra
Trondheim &quot;Skolelinux-prosjektet i Sør-Trøndelag&quot; . Hvor vi var med å
bidra til at Trondheim kommune satte igang Selsbakk ungdomskole som et
pilotprosjekt med Skolelinux, som egentlig var og er en stor suksess,
men det virker ut som det ikke skjer noe mer på. I tillegg var vi med
på dugnad på Brundalen videregående skole hvor vi installerte
Skolelinux som såvidt jeg vet fortsatt kjører på Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det bygger på fri programvare og har lav kostnad i forhold til
nytteverdien. Dette fordi det har forholdsvis lav inngangsum og bruker
en arkitektur med sentral-drift som gir mange driftfordeler.  I
tillegg vil det kunne frigjøre kostnader for skolene slik at de kan
bruke dem til å ansette f,eks flere lærere om det er ønskelig.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;P&gt;Ikke all pedagogisk programvare er tilgjengelig der, som f.eks
Drillpro om jeg ikke husker feil.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Til utvikling av Java-applikasjoner og Android bruker jeg Eclipse og
Quanta til web-utvikling via php. For all bildebehandling bruker jeg
GIMP og Blender til 3d-modellering . Dessverre har Blender en bratt
læringskurve i starten, men det er absolutt verdt det.

&lt;p&gt;Til musikk bruker jeg stort Rhytmbox. Firefox til surfing på nettet og
Thunderbird og Evolution til e-post,

&lt;p&gt;På database-siden bruker jeg PostgreSQL, Postgis og av og til Mysql.

&lt;p&gt;Når jeg får tid til å spille bruker jeg som regel et strategi-spill
som er basert på TA Spring-motoren (springrts.com), her er det et
veldig bra utvalg av gratis spill som er av høy kvalitet. Veldig lett
å bli hektet :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Inspirerende fra en ukjent Skolelinux-skole</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Inspirerende_fra_en_ukjent_Skolelinux_skole.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Inspirerende_fra_en_ukjent_Skolelinux_skole.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 4 Jan 2011 07:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Følgende inspirerende historie fant jeg i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/php/ny_debatt.php?id=858869#innlegg_770926&quot;&gt;kommentarfeltet
hos digi.no&lt;/a&gt; i forbindelse med en trist sak om hvordan
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/858869/datakaos-etter-linux-satsing&quot;&gt;skolen
i Hemsedal har fått ødelagt&lt;/a&gt; sin Skolelinux-installasjon.  Jeg har
fikset endel åpenbare skrivefeil for lesbarhetens skyld.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lignende situasjon i annen kommune, se bare her:&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;br&gt;av Inspektør Siri (gjest) 

&lt;p&gt;Kommunen min har to omtrent jevnstore tettsteder, og en
ungdomsskole i hvert av tettstedene. Den minste av disse har ca 300
elever og til denne sogner det 3 barneskoler. Den største har ca 350
elever og til denne sogner det 4 barneskoler.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Kommunen har i veldig lang tid forsømt IKT i skolen, og det har
bare blitt gitt smuler i ny og ne. Det er kun den største av
ungdomsskolene som har hatt en skikkelig datapark, og dette takket
være en naturfaglærer som ble lei av å vente på kommunen. Det gjorde
at vi bestemte oss for å ta ting i egne hender, og da vha
skolelinux. En testinstallasjon med 10 gamle PCer ble gjort, og vi så
raskt at dette var veldig lovende. Neste etappe var å gi alle lærere
egen PC på arbeidsplassene sine (2004), og så sette opp 16 PCer på to
datarom. Vi har kun basert oss på å kjøpe inn brukte maskiner, og
aldri dyrere enn 1000 kr pr klient. For to år siden så hadde vi
klienter i alle klasserom, og totalt hadde vi da rundt 250 stk. Rundt
40 klienter brukes av lærerne og kjører på en egen server. Elvene har
resten, og kjører også en egen server. Servere har vi også kjøpt
brukt, 2 år gamle servere koster 6-7000 kroner.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Skolen vår er et relativt gammelt bygg, men en meget dyktig
vaktmester har sammen med IKT-ansvarlig/Naturfaglærer lagt kabler til alle
rom. Gradvis har vi byttet ut billige svitsjer med mer solide saker
som er mulig å fjernstyre.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Vi har i all hovedsak greid å få dette til over eget budsjett, men
vi har også passet på å få penger når de andre skolene har fått
bærbare PCer til lærere osv.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Vår IKT-ansvarlig har gjort (og gjør) en fenomenal jobb, og vi har
en maskinpark som de andre av kommunens skoler bare kan drømme
om.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Så skjer det som ofte skjer. Det kommer en eller annen
selger/blåruss og skal fikse ALT. I vårt tilfelle betyr dette også
sentralisering av drift. Den ny-ansatte på kommunens IT-avdelingen
skal også ha jobb, og ser for seg å ta over skoledriften. Kommunen
kjøper inn eksterne driftstjenester, og nekter i samme slengen å ta
hensyn til skolen vår. Dette til tross for at vi alene har like mange
datamaskiner som de andre til sammen. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Det blir krevd at vi skal innlemmes i de kommunale systemet, og
det er VI som får ansvar for at dette kommer på plass. Og det er her
de horrible tingene begynner å skje. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Det settes opp en lukket Exchange server som gjør av vi ikke kan
hente epost for våre ansatte. Og det kreves at vi finner løsning på
dette.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Det velges sak arkivsystem som vi pålegges å bruke, noe som gjør
at vi må bruke en terminalløsning mot kommunal server. Ikke i seg selv
et problem i følge IKT-ansvarlig hos oss. Men kommunens IT-avd nektet
faktisk å åpne de porter OSV som vi måtte bruke.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Vi blir pålagt å flytte på innsiden av det kommunale
nettverket. Dette gjorde at vi mistet hjemmekontor for lærere og
elever. Å få åpnet porter i kommunal brannmur var ikke
aktuelt. Mulighet for fjerndrift ble også vekk i samme slengen. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Vår LMS Moodle er ikke mulig å nå for elevene og lærerne. 

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Den andre ungdomsskolen i kommunen begynner så å kreve at de skal
få bedre datatetthet, og komme opp på et nivå som ligner det vi
har. De ser at vi kan avholde eksamen hvor alle 10. klassingene får
sitte ved hver sin PC. Og de har fått tilbakemelding (klager) fra VGS
om manglende datakompetanse på elevene som kommer fra dem. Dette fører
videre til at kommunen endelig innser at de må ta grep. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Grepet betyr sentralisering, og farvel til vår plattform får vi
høre. Det blir gjort en rekke bestemmelser og vedtak som vi ikke får
være en del av. Det blir helt klart at vi må redusere antall maskiner,
og det skal satses på bærbare maskiner. Siden vi ikke har fått tatt
del i prosessene som angår oss, så bruker vi fagforening. Vi har ikke
blitt hørt i forbindelse med endringer som er betydelig for vår
hverdag, og greier å stoppe omlegging. I tillegg så har vi et politisk
vedtak i kommunen på at vi skal kjøre Linux på elevnett, og dette
vedtaket kan ikke administrasjonen i kommunene helt uten videre
tilsidesette. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I sum har dette gjort at vi har fått jobbe videre i fred. Og en del
runder i kommunens kontrollutvalg har gjort det tydelig at vi har blitt
systematisk motarbeidet. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I dag har de andre skolene fått sine bærbare maskiner til elever og
lærere, men etter 2 år med innkjøring er det fremdeles problemer
her. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Ungdomsskolen med windows kan ikke kjøre eksamen med sine bærbare,
det er for mye arbeid å renske disse for innhold slik at juks ikke er
mulig.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Utskrift er et mareritt, etter sigende pga at utskrift først
sendes til sentral server, og så sendes ut til rett skriver. I snitt
så tar det 7-8 minutter før utskrift starter på enkelte av
skolene.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Trådløst skaper store problemer, og det er i perioder helt umulig
å komme seg på nett. Og lagring på felles server er bare å glemme i
perioder.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har slitt mye, kranglet og sloss. Ikke med tekniske problemer,
men med omgivelsene rundt som vil oss til livs. Men det har vært verdt
hver dråpe med svette, og timer med irritasjon. Men vi har begynt å få
rutine her nå. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Vi har fremdeles et system som vi styrer helt selv. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi har vist at argumentet med at vår IKT-ansvarlig kan finne seg annen jobb ikke holder mål. Vi har kjøpt driftskonto hos et firma i tilfelle krise, og vi har kjørt opplæring på flere av de yngre lærerne. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi har til enhver tid en lærling IKT driftsfag, og velger selvsagt ut dem som satser på Linux. Vi har nå begynt å få tilbake av våre tidligere elever som vil til oss nettopp fordi vi har Linux.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi har vist at vi greier å opprettholde en dobbelt så stor datapark som naboskolen, og det til en billigere penge. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi har datastøtte og support på huset, ALLTID tilgjengelig. De andre skolene må vente flere dager hvis det ikke er noe kritisk. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vår IKT-ansvarlig har 50% stilling som lærer og 50% som IKT-ansvarlig. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi har en lærer på hvert trinn som har 3 timer i uka til å drive support/støtte til de andre lærerne. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vi opplever at de yngste lærerne ved den andre ungdomsskolen ønsker seg over til oss. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi skal i løpet av året starte prosess med å planlegge ny skole, og vi har fått gjennomslag for at jeg (inspektør) og IKT-ansvarlig skal ha det fulle og hele ansvar for IKT/Infrastruktur. Begrunnelsen vår som ble avgjørende her, var at IT-avd i kommunen ikke kan noe om data i skolen. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Beklager hvis dette ble litt usammenhengende, men det ble tastet i
fei, og jeg har ikke lest gjennom&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det kom raskt et lite svar:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SV: Lignende situasjon i annen kommune, se bare her:&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;br&gt;av captain_obvious&lt;/p&gt;
 
&lt;p&gt;Inspirerende å lese. Har dere gjort noe for å fortelle denne
historien videre?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hadde vært svært interessant om dere tok kontakt med dokument 2 eller
lignende for å fortelle hvordan det egentlig står til med
IT-satsningen i kommune-Norge. Om ikke annet kan du begynner med å
raffinere innlegget ditt og få en gjesteartikkel på digi.no&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Og deretter en lengre oppfølging.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SV: Lignende situasjon i annen kommune, se bare her:&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;br&gt;av Inspektør Siri (gjest) 
 
&lt;p&gt;Joda, vi har lekt med tanken, og vi har t.o.m skrevet flere lengre
leserinnlegg myntet på aviser. Disse er ikke sendt til aviser, men
brukt internt i forbindelse med møter med kommune. Vår IKT-ansvarlig
har også truet med å si opp jobben sin hvis det ikke ble tatt hensyn i
større grad enn hva som har vært tilfelle. VI kan også dokumentere
flere brudd på anbudsregler, og vi kjenner til at relativt store
IT-leverandører som ikke har fått tatt del i disse anbudene, rett og
slett ikke tør melde fra av redsel for å få et dårlig rykte. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Alt ser ut til å roe seg ned, og vi har fått opp øynene på
politikerne. I sum gjør dette at vi ikke ønsker for mye publisitet nå,
det vil bare rote til igjen. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg glemte å nevne at vi nå nesten ikke bruker tid på å drifte
systemet vårt, noe som gjør at det aller meste av tid blir brukt til å
støtte lærerne og elevene. F.eks så bruker vår IKT-ansvarlig den
første timen på jobb, 0730-0830 kun til å gå ute på arbeidsplassene
til læreren. Dette for å kunne svare på små og store problem, gi tips
og råd, eller bare for å plukke opp hva som er behovet ute i
undervisningsarealene. Det er dessverre ikke slik at alle lærerne har
nok digital kompetanse til å kunne formulere alle spørsmålene de har,
men ved å kunne få vise eller lufte tanker med IKT-ansvarlig så er det
utrolig hva som kommer fram. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Jeg ser at mange bruker økonomi som argument i forhold til å bruke
SkoleLinux, og jeg skal ikke legge skjul på at det var dette som i
utgangspunktet var årsaken til vårt valg. Men diskusjonene og kampen
med kommunens IT-avdeling har gjort at vi har fått et noe annet
fokus. Fordelene med drift og stabilitet, gjør at vi ville ha valgt
samme løsning selv om den var dyrere. At vi slipper langt billigere
unna, som følge av 0,- lisenskostnader og lave maskinvarekostnader, er
bare en bonus. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Etter å ha kranglet oss til å få skikkelig oversikt over hva de
andre skolene i kommunen bruker på IT, så har vi fått gehør for å få
samme midler til innkjøp. Dette har gjort at vi nå kan kjøpe inn
utstyr som de andre skolene bare kan se langt etter. Vi har nettopp
kjøpt inn 3 videokamera i semiproff-klassen for å kunne lage film,
samt sende live fra skoleteater/konserter. Vi har kjøpt inn digitale
kompaktkamera til alle klassene. Vi har et team av lærere som skal i
gang med å teste ut tablets på svake elever. Håpet et at teknologien
kan være med på å gi noen av elevene litt mer motivasjon. Vi har kjøpt
inn et halvt klassesett med pulsklokker, noe som har vist seg å være
overraskende inspirerende for en del av elevene. Vi har også oss på
fag på en høyskole litt lengre sør for oss, slik at 3 av oss nå skal
ta faget &quot;Linux tjenestedrift&quot;. Som inspektør og en del av skolens
administrasjon er det veldig praktisk å kunne trå til hvis det
kniper. Men IKT-ansvarlig har vært UTROLIG flink til å lage rene
smørbrødlister for hvordan de mest vanlige driftsproblem løses, så det
er lett for flere av oss å ta del i den daglige driften. Vi har svært
stor nytte av lærling (som også hjelper to av naboskolene), men det er
nesten blitt slik at det er om å gjøre å komme til først for å få løse
problem. Det å få fingrene på problem og utfordringer er den aller
beste læremester. &lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Når vi nå tar til med planlegging av ny skole, så vil det være med
tanke på at det skal være mulig med datautstyr på alle plasser. Vi
kommer i all hovedsak til å legge kabel til alle tenkelige og
utenkelige plasser. WiFi koster tilnærmet NULL å sette opp i
ettertid.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi har ikke vært noe flink til å bidra til SkoleLinux-prosjektet,
vi har rett og slett vært for opptatt med vår egen kamp. Vi har hentet
mye inspirasjon fra diskusjoner som har gått i det miljøet, og vi
håper at vi nå framover kan få tid til å bidra. Vi er i ferd med å
bytte ut en av serverne våre, og da vil denne trolig bli satt opp som
testserver for neste versjon av Skolelinux. På den måten vil vi i alle
fall kunne gi tilbakemeldinger og rapportere feil. I tillegg så vil
det kanskje gi oss noen nye utfordringer, for som lærlingen vår sier:
&quot;Skolelinux er noe herk, det skjer jo ikke noe galt og hvordan skal
jeg da lære?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det er veldig hyggelig å høre at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; fungerer så bra i
skoleverdagen etter å ha jobbet med det i 10 år.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have spent at work here at the &lt;a
href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of Oslo&lt;/a&gt; testing if the new
batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
university.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
have the time to do this for all the problems I find.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
I perform on a new model.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is PXE installation working?  I&#39;m testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
installation, X.org is working.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
reported by the program.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
normally test this by playing
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ &quot;&gt;a HTML5
video&lt;/a&gt; in Firefox/Iceweasel.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
picture from the v4l device show up.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
few.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
notice this.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I&#39;m testing if the
special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
resume.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
not.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
existence.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
for the HP machines I am testing.  I&#39;m not done yet, so I will report
the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo&quot;&gt;development
gathering&lt;/a&gt; in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
will hold its
&lt;a href=&quot;http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010&quot;&gt;General Assembly
for 2010&lt;/a&gt;.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
vote this year.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Why isn&#39;t Debian Edu using VLC?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.&lt;p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
mplayer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian
Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;last
tested the browser plugins&lt;/a&gt; available in Debian, the VLC plugin
failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.&lt;/P&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
what is going on.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
upgrade testing of the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;Lenny
Gnome and KDE Desktop&lt;/a&gt; to do &lt;tt&gt;apt-get autoremove&lt;/tt&gt; when using apt-get.
This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
can now present the updated result from today:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is for Gnome:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  apache2.2-bin
  aptdaemon
  baobab
  binfmt-support
  browser-plugin-gnash
  cheese-common
  cli-common
  cups-pk-helper
  dmz-cursor-theme
  empathy
  empathy-common
  freedesktop-sound-theme
  freeglut3
  gconf-defaults-service
  gdm-themes
  gedit-plugins
  geoclue
  geoclue-hostip
  geoclue-localnet
  geoclue-manual
  geoclue-yahoo
  gnash
  gnash-common
  gnome
  gnome-backgrounds
  gnome-cards-data
  gnome-codec-install
  gnome-core
  gnome-desktop-environment
  gnome-disk-utility
  gnome-screenshot
  gnome-search-tool
  gnome-session-canberra
  gnome-system-log
  gnome-themes-extras
  gnome-themes-more
  gnome-user-share
  gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
  gstreamer0.10-tools
  gtk2-engines
  gtk2-engines-pixbuf
  gtk2-engines-smooth
  hamster-applet
  libapache2-mod-dnssd
  libapr1
  libaprutil1
  libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
  libaprutil1-ldap
  libart2.0-cil
  libboost-date-time1.42.0
  libboost-python1.42.0
  libboost-thread1.42.0
  libchamplain-0.4-0
  libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
  libcheese-gtk18
  libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
  libcryptui0
  libdiscid0
  libelf1
  libepc-1.0-2
  libepc-common
  libepc-ui-1.0-2
  libfreerdp-plugins-standard
  libfreerdp0
  libgconf2.0-cil
  libgdata-common
  libgdata7
  libgdu-gtk0
  libgee2
  libgeoclue0
  libgexiv2-0
  libgif4
  libglade2.0-cil
  libglib2.0-cil
  libgmime2.4-cil
  libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
  libgnome2.24-cil
  libgnomepanel2.24-cil
  libgpod-common
  libgpod4
  libgtk2.0-cil
  libgtkglext1
  libgtksourceview2.0-common
  libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
  libmono-addins0.2-cil
  libmono-cairo2.0-cil
  libmono-corlib2.0-cil
  libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
  libmono-posix2.0-cil
  libmono-security2.0-cil
  libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
  libmono-system2.0-cil
  libmtp8
  libmusicbrainz3-6
  libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
  libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
  libopal3.6.8
  libpolkit-gtk-1-0
  libpt2.6.7
  libpython2.6
  librpm1
  librpmio1
  libsdl1.2debian
  libsrtp0
  libssh-4
  libtelepathy-farsight0
  libtelepathy-glib0
  libtidy-0.99-0
  media-player-info
  mesa-utils
  mono-2.0-gac
  mono-gac
  mono-runtime
  nautilus-sendto
  nautilus-sendto-empathy
  p7zip-full
  pkg-config
  python-aptdaemon
  python-aptdaemon-gtk
  python-axiom
  python-beautifulsoup
  python-bugbuddy
  python-clientform
  python-coherence
  python-configobj
  python-crypto
  python-cupshelpers
  python-elementtree
  python-epsilon
  python-evolution
  python-feedparser
  python-gdata
  python-gdbm
  python-gst0.10
  python-gtkglext1
  python-gtksourceview2
  python-httplib2
  python-louie
  python-mako
  python-markupsafe
  python-mechanize
  python-nevow
  python-notify
  python-opengl
  python-openssl
  python-pam
  python-pkg-resources
  python-pyasn1
  python-pysqlite2
  python-rdflib
  python-serial
  python-tagpy
  python-twisted-bin
  python-twisted-conch
  python-twisted-core
  python-twisted-web
  python-utidylib
  python-webkit
  python-xdg
  python-zope.interface
  remmina
  remmina-plugin-data
  remmina-plugin-rdp
  remmina-plugin-vnc
  rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
  rhythmbox-plugins
  rpm-common
  rpm2cpio
  seahorse-plugins
  shotwell
  software-center
  system-config-printer-udev
  telepathy-gabble
  telepathy-mission-control-5
  telepathy-salut
  tomboy
  totem
  totem-coherence
  totem-mozilla
  totem-plugins
  transmission-common
  xdg-user-dirs
  xdg-user-dirs-gtk
  xserver-xephyr
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  cheese
  ekiga
  eog
  epiphany-extensions
  evolution-exchange
  fast-user-switch-applet
  file-roller
  gcalctool
  gconf-editor
  gdm
  gedit
  gedit-common
  gnome-games
  gnome-games-data
  gnome-nettool
  gnome-system-tools
  gnome-themes
  gnuchess
  gucharmap
  guile-1.8-libs
  libavahi-ui0
  libdmx1
  libgalago3
  libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
  libgtksourceview2.0-0
  liblircclient0
  libsdl1.2debian-alsa
  libspeexdsp1
  libsvga1
  rhythmbox
  seahorse
  sound-juicer
  system-config-printer
  totem-common
  transmission-gtk
  vinagre
  vino
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
[nothing]
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is for KDE:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  ksmserver
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  kwin
  network-manager-kde
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  arts
  dolphin
  freespacenotifier
  google-gadgets-gst
  google-gadgets-xul
  kappfinder
  kcalc
  kcharselect
  kde-core
  kde-plasma-desktop
  kde-standard
  kde-window-manager
  kdeartwork
  kdeartwork-emoticons
  kdeartwork-style
  kdeartwork-theme-icon
  kdebase
  kdebase-apps
  kdebase-workspace
  kdebase-workspace-bin
  kdebase-workspace-data
  kdeeject
  kdelibs
  kdeplasma-addons
  kdeutils
  kdewallpapers
  kdf
  kfloppy
  kgpg
  khelpcenter4
  kinfocenter
  konq-plugins-l10n
  konqueror-nsplugins
  kscreensaver
  kscreensaver-xsavers
  ktimer
  kwrite
  libgle3
  libkde4-ruby1.8
  libkonq5
  libkonq5-templates
  libnetpbm10
  libplasma-ruby
  libplasma-ruby1.8
  libqt4-ruby1.8
  marble-data
  marble-plugins
  netpbm
  nuvola-icon-theme
  plasma-dataengines-workspace
  plasma-desktop
  plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
  plasma-runners-addons
  plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
  plasma-scriptengine-python
  plasma-scriptengine-qedje
  plasma-scriptengine-ruby
  plasma-scriptengine-webkit
  plasma-scriptengines
  plasma-wallpapers-addons
  plasma-widget-folderview
  plasma-widget-networkmanagement
  ruby
  sweeper
  update-notifier-kde
  xscreensaver-data-extra
  xscreensaver-gl
  xscreensaver-gl-extra
  xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  ark
  google-gadgets-common
  google-gadgets-qt
  htdig
  kate
  kdebase-bin
  kdebase-data
  kdepasswd
  kfind
  klipper
  konq-plugins
  konqueror
  ksysguard
  ksysguardd
  libarchive1
  libcln6
  libeet1
  libeina-svn-06
  libggadget-1.0-0b
  libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
  libgps19
  libkdecorations4
  libkephal4
  libkonq4
  libkonqsidebarplugin4a
  libkscreensaver5
  libksgrd4
  libksignalplotter4
  libkunitconversion4
  libkwineffects1a
  libmarblewidget4
  libntrack-qt4-1
  libntrack0
  libplasma-geolocation-interface4
  libplasmaclock4a
  libplasmagenericshell4
  libprocesscore4a
  libprocessui4a
  libqalculate5
  libqedje0a
  libqtruby4shared2
  libqzion0a
  libruby1.8
  libscim8c2a
  libsmokekdecore4-3
  libsmokekdeui4-3
  libsmokekfile3
  libsmokekhtml3
  libsmokekio3
  libsmokeknewstuff2-3
  libsmokeknewstuff3-3
  libsmokekparts3
  libsmokektexteditor3
  libsmokekutils3
  libsmokenepomuk3
  libsmokephonon3
  libsmokeplasma3
  libsmokeqtcore4-3
  libsmokeqtdbus4-3
  libsmokeqtgui4-3
  libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
  libsmokeqtopengl4-3
  libsmokeqtscript4-3
  libsmokeqtsql4-3
  libsmokeqtsvg4-3
  libsmokeqttest4-3
  libsmokeqtuitools4-3
  libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
  libsmokeqtxml4-3
  libsmokesolid3
  libsmokesoprano3
  libtaskmanager4a
  libtidy-0.99-0
  libweather-ion4a
  libxklavier16
  libxxf86misc1
  okteta
  oxygencursors
  plasma-dataengines-addons
  plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
  plasma-widget-lancelot
  plasma-widgets-addons
  plasma-widgets-workspace
  polkit-kde-1
  ruby1.8
  systemsettings
  update-notifier-common
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Most of the computers in use by the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux project&lt;/a&gt;
are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found
&lt;a href=&quot;http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM&quot;&gt;a
nice recipe&lt;/a&gt; to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
#!/bin/sh

# Based on
# http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM

set -e
set -x

if [ -z &quot;$1&quot; ] ; then
    echo &quot;Usage: $0 &amp;lt;hostname&amp;gt;&quot;
    exit 1
else
    host=&quot;$1&quot;
fi

if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
    echo &quot;error: unable to find LVM volume for $host&quot;
    exit 1
fi

# Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk &#39;{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }&#39;)
swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk &#39;{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }&#39;)
totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))

img=$host.img
#dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD

parted $img mklabel msdos
parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
parted $img set 1 boot on

modprobe dm-mod
losetup /dev/loop0 $img
kpartx -a /dev/loop0

dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2

kpartx -d /dev/loop0
losetup -d /dev/loop0
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
seem to work just fine.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m still running upgrade testing of the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;Lenny
Gnome and KDE Desktop&lt;/a&gt;, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
can see if anything should be changed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is for Gnome:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
  browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
  dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
  freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
  gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
  geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
  gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
  gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
  gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
  gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
  gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
  gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
  gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
  libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
  libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
  libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
  libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
  libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
  libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
  libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
  libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
  libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
  libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
  libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
  libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
  libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
  libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
  libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
  libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
  libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
  libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
  libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
  libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
  libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
  libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
  libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
  mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
  nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
  openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
  python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
  python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
  python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
  python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
  python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
  python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
  python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
  python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
  python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
  python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
  python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
  python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
  python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
  remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
  rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
  software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
  telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
  totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
  transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
  zip
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
  epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
  fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
  gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
  gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
  gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
  guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
  libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
  libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
  libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
  libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
  libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
  libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
  libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
  libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
  libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
  libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
  libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
  libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
  libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
  libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
  libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
  libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
  libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
  libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
  libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
  libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
  sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
  totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
[nothing]
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is for KDE:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
  edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
  ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
  gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
  kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
  kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
  kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
  kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
  kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
  kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
  kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
  kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
  killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
  kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
  ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
  libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
  libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
  libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
  libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
  libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
  libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
  libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
  libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
  libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
  lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
  openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
  parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
  pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
  speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
  ttf-sazanami-gothic
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
  dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
  kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
  kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
  keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
  kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
  kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
  klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
  kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
  kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
  kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
  ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
  ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
  kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
  kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
  libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
  libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
  libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
  libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
  libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
  libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
  libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
  libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
  libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
  libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
  libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
  libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
  libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
  libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
  libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
  mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
  texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
  ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
  kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
  kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
  kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
  netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
  xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
  xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Answering
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html&quot;&gt;the
call from the Gnash project&lt;/a&gt; for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gnashdev.org:8010&quot;&gt;buildbot&lt;/a&gt; slaves to test the
current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
releases out more often.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
I have considered setting up a &lt;a
href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/&quot;&gt;Debian/kfreebsd&lt;/a&gt;
machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 7 Nov 2010 11:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; DVD, which is
supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
working using this DVD.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
a patch for debian-cd in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/601203&quot;&gt;BTS
report #601203&lt;/a&gt; to do this, and since this change was applied to
the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
Debian archive.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
free X driver should work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
DVD more useful again.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Software updates 2010-10-24</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Some updates.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My &lt;a href=&quot;http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2&quot;&gt;gnash pledge&lt;/a&gt; to
raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
:)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
It is called
&lt;a href=&quot;http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html&quot;&gt;kcov&lt;/a&gt;,
and can be used using &lt;tt&gt;kcov &amp;lt;directory&amp;gt; &amp;lt;binary&amp;gt;&lt;/tt&gt;.
It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for &lt;a
href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html&quot;&gt;a
new alpha release of Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;, and just published the second
alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
clients to get a Linux desktop on request.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote&quot;&gt;Debian
popularity-contest numbers&lt;/a&gt;, the adobe-flashplugin package the
second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
installed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
(«&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&amp;do=view&amp;target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;»), one of the most important problems
schools experienced with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian
Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
good reason to stay with Windows.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
pages they want to visit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
accept the new package into Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Broken hard link handling with sshfs</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html&quot;&gt;previous
post about sshfs&lt;/a&gt;.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
a link count &gt;1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
% ln foo bar
ln: creating hard link `bar&#39; =&gt; `foo&#39;: Function not implemented
%
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
nevertheless. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The latest version of the file system test code is available via
git from
&lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux i Osloskolen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_i_Osloskolen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_i_Osloskolen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:25:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Denne høsten skal endelig alle Osloskolene få mulighet til å bruke
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  Ny IT-løsning
har vært rullet ut i noen måneder nå, og så vidt jeg fikk vite før
sommeren skulle alle skoler ha nytt opplegg på plass før oppstart nå i
høst.  På alle skolene skal en kunne velge ved installasjon om en skal
ha Windows eller Skolelinux på maskinene, og en kan i tillegg
PXE-boote maskinene over nett som tynne klienter eller diskløse
arbeidsstasjoner. Jeg er spent på hvor mange skoler som velger å ta i
bruk Skolelinux, og gleder meg til å se hvordan dette utvikler seg.
Løsningen leveres av
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.logica.no/&quot;&gt;Logica&lt;/a&gt; med
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt; som
underleverandør, og jeg har vært involvert i utviklingen av løsningen
via Skolelinux Drift AS siden prosjektet starter.  Jeg synes det er
fantastisk at Skolelinux er kommet så langt siden vi startet i 2001 at
alle elevene i Osloskolene nå skal få mulighet til å bruke
løsningen.  Jeg håper de vil sette pris på alle de
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.no/linux-signpost/&quot;&gt;fantastiske
brukerprogrammene&lt;/a&gt; som er tilgjengelig i Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Broken umask handling with sshfs</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;My file system sematics program
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html&quot;&gt;presented
a few days ago&lt;/a&gt; is very useful to verify that a file system can
work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I&#39;m
looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
script:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
  mode_t retval = 0;
  int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
  if (-1 != fd) {
    unlink(name);
    struct stat statbuf;
    if (-1 != fstat(fd, &amp;statbuf)) {
      retval = statbuf.st_mode &amp; 0x1ff;
    }
    close(fd);
  }
  return retval;
}

/* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
int test_umask(void) {
  printf(&quot;info: testing umask effect on file creation\n&quot;);

  mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
  mode_t newmode;
  if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode(&quot;foobar&quot;, 0666))) {
    printf(&quot;  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n&quot;,
           newmode);
  }
  umask(007);
  if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode(&quot;foobar&quot;, 0666))) {
    printf(&quot;  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n&quot;,
           newmode);
  }

  umask (orig_umask);
  return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  [...]
  test_umask();
  return 0;
}
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
info: testing symlink creation
info: testing subdirectory creation
info: testing fcntl locking
  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
info: testing umask effect on file creation
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
result:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
info: testing symlink creation
info: testing subdirectory creation
info: testing fcntl locking
  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
info: testing umask effect on file creation
  error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
  error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
directory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/594498&quot;&gt;BTS report #594498&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 9 Aug 2010 20:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
generated configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
without any manual configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
required configuration was dynamically detected using information
fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
use.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
working properly out of the box:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;IP address/netmask and DNS server.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Web proxy URL.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Kerberos server for PAM password checking.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
/etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
proxy present on the new network when it moves around.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I&#39;ve been unable to find a way to
look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
current DNS domain is used.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
should switch those to use sssd too?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The user&#39;s SMB mount point for the network home directory is
located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
consulted to look for the user&#39;s LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
attribute is used if found.  If it isn&#39;t found, the home directory
path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
do for now. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
yet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
implement it for Debian Edu. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 8 Aug 2010 21:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
/*
 * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
 * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
 * directory.
 * License: GPL v2 or later
 * 
 * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
 * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
*/

#define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
#define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
#define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1

#define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */

#include &amp;lt;errno.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;fcntl.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;stdio.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;string.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;stdlib.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;sys/file.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;sys/stat.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;sys/types.h&gt;
#include &amp;lt;unistd.h&gt;

#ifdef TEST_SQLITE
/*
 * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
 * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
 * below.
 * See also &amp;lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 &gt;.
 */
#include &amp;lt;sqlite3.h&gt;
#define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
  &quot;CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); &quot;
int test_sqlite_open(void) {
  char *zErrMsg;
  char *name = &quot;testsqlite.db&quot;;
  sqlite3 *db=NULL;
  unlink(name);
  int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &amp;db);
  if( rc ){
    printf(&quot;error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n&quot;, name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
    sqlite3_close(db);
    return -1;
  }

  /* create tables */
  rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &amp;zErrMsg);
  if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
    printf(&quot;error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n&quot;, zErrMsg);
    sqlite3_close(db);
    return -1;
  }
  printf(&quot;info: sqlite worked\n&quot;);
  sqlite3_close(db);
  return 0;
}
#endif /* TEST_SQLITE */

/*
 * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
 * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
 * done in the sqlite3 library.
 * See also
 * &amp;lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html&gt; and the
 * POSIX specification
 * &amp;lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html&gt;.
 */
int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
  struct flock fl;
  char *name = &quot;testsqlite.db&quot;;
  unlink(name);
  int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
  printf(&quot;info: testing fcntl locking\n&quot;);

  fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
  fl.l_pid    = getpid();
  printf(&quot;  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
  fl.l_len    = 1;
  fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  printf(&quot;  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
  fl.l_len    = 510;
  fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  printf(&quot;  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
  fl.l_len    = 1;
  fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  printf(&quot;  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
  fl.l_len    = 1;
  fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  printf(&quot;  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
  fl.l_len    = 510;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  printf(&quot;  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
  fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
  fl.l_len    = 2;
  fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
  if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);

  close(fd);
  return 0;
}

/*
 * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
 * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
 * Mounting with option &#39;sync&#39; seem to solve this problem while
 * slowing down file operations.
 */
int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
#define LEVELS 5
  char *path = strdup(&quot;test&quot;);
  char *dirs[LEVELS];
  int level;
  printf(&quot;info: testing subdirectory creation\n&quot;);
  for (level = 0; level &amp;lt; LEVELS; level++) {
    char *newpath = NULL;
    if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
      printf(&quot;  error: Unable to create directory &#39;%s&#39;: %s\n&quot;,
             path, strerror(errno));
      break;
    }
    asprintf(&amp;newpath, &quot;%s/%s&quot;, path, &quot;test&quot;);
    free(path);
    path = newpath;
  }
  return 0;
}

/*
 * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
 * KDE.
 */
int test_symlinks(void) {
  printf(&quot;info: testing symlink creation\n&quot;);
  unlink(&quot;symlink&quot;);
  if (-1 == symlink(&quot;file&quot;, &quot;symlink&quot;))
    printf(&quot;  error: Unable to create symlink\n&quot;);
  return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  printf(&quot;Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n&quot;);
  test_symlinks();
  test_subdirectory_creation();
#ifdef TEST_SQLITE
  test_sqlite_open();
#endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
  test_gcompris_locking();
  return 0;
}
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When everything is working, it should print something like
this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
info: testing symlink creation
info: testing subdirectory creation
info: sqlite worked
info: testing fcntl locking
  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
it. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html&quot;&gt;tried
to install&lt;/a&gt; a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
/etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
gave it a IP address.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
_ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
uppercase version of $domain.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
but SMB mounting still do not work. :(&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
with UID and GID values.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 3 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
servers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
/etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
(/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
.uio.no.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
university servers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
uses.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
completed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
language of choice, please let us know too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
much.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Changes compared to the lenny based version&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Everything from Debian Squeeze
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;Desktop environment KDE 4.4 =&gt; the new KDE desktop in
         combination with some new artwork
  &lt;li&gt;Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
  &lt;li&gt;OpenOffice.org 3.2
  &lt;li&gt;Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
  &lt;li&gt;Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
  &lt;li&gt;Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
  &lt;li&gt;Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
  &lt;li&gt;Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
  &lt;li&gt;3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
  &lt;li&gt;Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
    Enabled for:
&lt;ul&gt;
  &lt;li&gt;PAM
  &lt;li&gt;LDAP
  &lt;li&gt;IMAP
  &lt;li&gt;SMTP (sender verification)
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
    fetched from LDAP.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;General cleanup (not finished)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The following features are not working as they should&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
    scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
    for testing.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
    and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
    clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
    netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
    some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
    jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Some packages lack translations. See
    http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
    and help out with translations.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To download this multiarch dvd release you can use&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
get closer to the final release.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of these images are&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of these images are&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;How to report bugs:
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
getting rid of password questions one at the time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
up. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
release another day.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This is a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html&quot;&gt;followup&lt;/a&gt;
on my
&lt;a href=&quot;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&quot;&gt;previous
work&lt;/a&gt; on
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html&quot;&gt;merging
all&lt;/a&gt; the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;

To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;powerdns&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend&quot;&gt;Clues
on how to&lt;/a&gt; set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
the web.

&lt;p&gt;PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
One &quot;strict&quot; mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
using the same LDAP objects, and a &quot;tree&quot; mode where the forward and
reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
base, and uses a &quot;base&quot; scoped search for the DNS name by adding
&quot;dc=tjener,dc=intern,&quot; to the base with a filter for
&quot;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&quot; for the forward entry and
&quot;dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,&quot; with a filter for
&quot;(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)&quot; for the reverse entry.  For
forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
ldapsearch commands could look like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
ldapsearch -h ldap \
  -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
  -s base -x &#39;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&#39; dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
  cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
  rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
  nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
  rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp

ldapsearch -h ldap \
  -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
  -s base -x &#39;(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)&#39;
  dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
  hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
  srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
also exist.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
objectclass: top
objectclass: dnsdomain
objectclass: domainrelatedobject
dc: tjener
arecord: 10.0.2.2
associateddomain: tjener.intern

dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
objectclass: top
objectclass: dnsdomain2
objectclass: domainrelatedobject
dc: 2
ptrrecord: tjener.intern
associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
forward DNS entries, it is doing a &quot;subtree&quot; scoped search with the
same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
&quot;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&quot; and requests the attributes dnsttl,
arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
subtree scoped search but this time the filter is &quot;(arecord=10.0.2.2)&quot;
and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
instead.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
  &#39;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&#39; dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
  cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
  rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
  nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
  rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp

ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
  &#39;(arecord=10.0.2.2)&#39; associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
reverse lookups.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
objectclass that provide the needed attributes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
classes with the object classes used by DHCP.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
(zonename and relativedomainname).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
objectclass ( some-oid NAME &#39;dnsDomainAux&#39;
    SUP top
    AUXILIARY
    MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
          DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
          TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
          NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
          A6Record $ DNAMERecord
    ))
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I&#39;ve sent an email to the PowerDNS
developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ISC dhcp&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
what is needed without having to read the source code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
stored.  These are the relevant entries from
/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
ldap-base-dn &quot;dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot;;
ldap-dhcp-server-cn &quot;dhcp&quot;;
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
configuration it need.  The cn &quot;dhcp&quot; is located using the given LDAP
base and the filter &quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))&quot;.  The
search result is this entry:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
cn: dhcp
objectClass: top
objectClass: dhcpServer
dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
is located using a base scope search with base &quot;cn=DHCP
Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot; and filter
&quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))&quot;.
The search result is this entry:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
cn: DHCP Config
objectClass: top
objectClass: dhcpService
objectClass: dhcpOptions
dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
dhcpStatements: authoritative
dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
related computer objects.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
scoped search with &quot;cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot; as
the base and &quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
00:00:00:00:00:00))&quot; as the filter.  This is what a host object look
like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
cn: hostname
objectClass: top
objectClass: dhcpHost
dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
structural object class.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its &quot;tree&quot; mode is rigid when it
come to the the LDAP structure, the &quot;strict&quot; mode is very flexible,
allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
in the configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
structure.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
this might work for Debian Edu:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
ou=services
  cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
    cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
    cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
      cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
        cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
    cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
      cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
        cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
    ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
      cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;P&gt;This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
like this:&lt;/p&gt;
    
&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
dc: hostname
objectClass: top
objectClass: dhcpHost
objectclass: domainrelatedobject
objectclass: dnsDomainAux
associateddomain: hostname.intern
arecord: 10.11.12.13
dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;/p&gt;One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
auxiliary object class.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
information finally found a solution that seem to work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
to a slave DNS server.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
I&#39;ve written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
seem to work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
  cn: hostname
  objectClass: dhcphost
  objectclass: domainrelatedobject
  objectclass: dnsdomainaux
  associateddomain: hostname.intern
  arecord: 10.11.12.13
  dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
  dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
  ldapconfigsound: Y
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
outside the &quot;DHCP Config&quot; subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
that.  If I can&#39;t figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
(which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
might be a good place to put it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
LTSP clients.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
in a &quot;computer&quot; LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
# Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
#
# Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
#
# Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
# the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
# ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
#
# This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
# existence of attribute names.
#
# The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
# ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
# To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
#
# Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
# configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
# 
# objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME &#39;ltspClientAux&#39;
#     SUP top
#     AUXILIARY
#     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )

LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
if [ &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; ] ; then
    LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
    for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk &#39;{print $5}&#39;|sort -u) ; do
        filter=&quot;(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))&quot;
        ldapsearch -h &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; -b &quot;$LDAPBASE&quot; -v -x &quot;$filter&quot; | \
            grep &#39;^ltspConfig&#39; | while read attr value ; do
            # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
            attr=$(echo $attr | sed &#39;s/^ltspConfig//i&#39; | tr a-z A-Z)
            # bass value on to clients
            eval &quot;$attr=$value; export $attr&quot;
        done
    done
fi
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html&quot;&gt;PC
Xperience, Inc., 2000&lt;/a&gt;.  I found its
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/&quot;&gt;files&lt;/a&gt; on a
personal home page over at redhat.com.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Since
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html&quot;&gt;my
last post&lt;/a&gt; about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
&lt;a href=&quot;http://jxplorer.org/&quot;&gt;jXplorer&lt;/a&gt; is claimed to be capable of
moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html&quot;&gt;available in
Debian&lt;/a&gt; testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 3 Jul 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is a short update on my &lt;a
href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;my
Debian Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrade testing&lt;/a&gt;.  Here is a summary of the
difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I&#39;m
not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
aptitude try because of missing conflicts
(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584861&quot;&gt;#584861&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/585716&quot;&gt;#585716&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
publish the difference.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
  libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
  libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
  libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
  libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
  libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
  python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
  python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
  gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
  libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
  libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
  libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
  libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
  libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
  libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
  libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
  libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
  libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
  libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
  libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
  libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
  libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
  libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
  libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
  libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
  libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
  mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
  python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
  xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
  xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
  xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
  xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
  xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
  xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
  xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
  xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
  xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
  xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
  xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
  xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
  xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
  xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
  xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
  deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
  xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
&lt;a href=&quot;http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120&quot;&gt;changed
in git&lt;/a&gt; today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
the difference somewhat.
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;

This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/568577&quot;&gt;bug #568577&lt;/a&gt; is in the
archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I&#39;ve been unable to get TLS
certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
on how to get this working.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
caching until &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;bug #485282&lt;/a&gt;
is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
instructions I found in the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/&quot;&gt;LDAP for Mobile Laptops&lt;/a&gt;
instructions by Flyn Computing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
        debug-level             0
        reload-count            unlimited
        paranoia                no

        enable-cache            passwd          yes
        positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
        negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
        suggested-size          passwd          211
        check-files             passwd          yes
        persistent              passwd          yes
        shared                  passwd          yes
        max-db-size             passwd          33554432
        auto-propagate          passwd          yes

        enable-cache            group           yes
        positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
        negative-time-to-live   group           20
        suggested-size          group           211
        check-files             group           yes
        persistent              group           yes
        shared                  group           yes
        max-db-size             group           33554432
        auto-propagate          group           yes

        enable-cache            hosts           no
        positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
        negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
        suggested-size          hosts           211
        check-files             hosts           yes
        persistent              hosts           yes
        shared                  hosts           yes
        max-db-size             hosts           33554432

        enable-cache            services        yes
        positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
        negative-time-to-live   services        20
        suggested-size          services        211
        check-files             services        yes
        persistent              services        yes
        shared                  services        yes
        max-db-size             services        33554432
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
automatically like the one provided in
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/496915&quot;&gt;bug #496915&lt;/a&gt;, the file
content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
look like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
passwd:         files ldap
group:          files ldap
shadow:         files ldap
hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
networks:       files
protocols:      files
services:       files
ethers:         files
rpc:            files
netgroup:       files ldap
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
shadow and netgroup.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
directory created and have the password as well as user and group
attributes cached.

&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
  libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
problems doing proper caching, I&#39;ve seen suggestions and recipes to
use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
discovered sssd.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package from Redhat.
It is part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freeipa.org/&quot;&gt;FreeIPA&lt;/A&gt; project
to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd package&lt;/a&gt;
was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
version 1.2 is now in testing.

&lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
roaming setup I want&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
&lt;tt&gt;/etc/sssd/sssd.conf&lt;/tt&gt;.

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
[sssd]
config_file_version = 2
reconnection_retries = 3
sbus_timeout = 30
services = nss, pam
domains = INTERN

[nss]
filter_groups = root
filter_users = root
reconnection_retries = 3

[pam]
reconnection_retries = 3

[domain/INTERN]
enumerate = false
cache_credentials = true

id_provider = ldap
auth_provider = ldap
chpass_provider = ldap

ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
ldap_tls_reqcert = never
ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
&quot;ldap_tls_reqcert = never&quot; to get it working.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
modify it manually.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://luma.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;LUMA&lt;/a&gt;, which has proved to
be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
released.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/&quot;&gt;ldapvi&lt;/a&gt; for that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html&quot;&gt;gq&lt;/a&gt; package as a
useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</title>
                <link>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</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">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</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A while back, I
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html&quot;&gt;complained
about the fact&lt;/a&gt; that it is not possible with the provided schemas
for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00&quot;&gt;DHCP
schema&lt;/a&gt; to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
available today from IETF.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;
--- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
+++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
 objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
        NAME &#39;dhcpHost&#39;
        DESC &#39;This represents information about a particular client&#39;
-       SUP top
+       SUP top AUXILIARY
        MUST cn
        MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
        X-NDS_CONTAINMENT (&#39;dhcpService&#39; &#39;dhcpSubnet&#39; &#39;dhcpGroup&#39;) )
&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;My
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html&quot;&gt;testing
of Debian upgrades&lt;/a&gt; from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I&#39;ve
finally made the upgrade logs available from
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&lt;/a&gt;.
I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
I will only focus on their removal plans.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
too surprising.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
&#39;&lt;tt&gt;echo &gt;&gt; /proc/&lt;em&gt;pidofdpkg&lt;/em&gt;/fd/0&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to tell dpkg to
continue.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;apt-get gnome 72&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;br&gt;bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
  gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
  iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
  libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
  nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
  serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
  xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
  xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
  xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
  xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
  xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
  xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
  xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
  xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
  xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
  xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
  xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
  xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
  xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
  xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
  xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
  xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
  xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;aptitude gnome 129&lt;/b&gt;

&lt;br&gt;bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
  djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
  gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
  gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
  libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
  libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
  libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
  libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
  libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
  libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
  libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
  libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
  libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
  libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
  libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
  libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
  libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
  libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
  libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
  libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
  libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
  libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
  libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
  libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
  openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
  python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
  python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
  python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
  swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
  xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
  xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
  zip&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;apt-get kde 82&lt;/b&gt;

&lt;br&gt;cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
  kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
  kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
  kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
  kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
  libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
  xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
  xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
  xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
  xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
  xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
  xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
  xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
  xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
  xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
  xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
  xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
  xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
  xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
  xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
  xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
  xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
  xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
  xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;aptitude kde 192&lt;/b&gt;
&lt;br&gt;bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
  djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
  ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
  kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
  kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
  kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
  kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
  kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
  kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
  kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
  kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
  klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
  kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
  krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
  ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
  kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
  kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
  libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
  libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
  libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
  libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
  libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
  libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
  libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
  libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
  libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
  libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
  libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
  libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
  libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
  libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
  openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
  superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
  texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
  xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
  xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
  xulrunner-1.9&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
have been discovered and reported in the process
(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/585410&quot;&gt;#585410&lt;/a&gt; in nagios3-cgi,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584879&quot;&gt;#584879&lt;/a&gt; already fixed in
enscript and &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584861&quot;&gt;#584861&lt;/a&gt; in
kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
am working on a script to automate the test.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
(only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
is created.  The bug report
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/566000&quot;&gt;#566000&lt;/a&gt; make me suspect
this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/&quot;&gt;known
issue&lt;/a&gt; and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
Debian Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
script, which I call &lt;tt&gt;upgrade-test&lt;/tt&gt; for now, is doing the
trick:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
#!/bin/sh
set -ex

if [ &quot;$1&quot; ] ; then
    desktop=$1
else
    desktop=gnome
fi

from=lenny
to=squeeze

exec &amp;lt; /dev/null
unset LANG
mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
fuser -mv .
debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
cat &gt; $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &amp;lt;&amp;lt;EOF
#!/bin/sh
exit 101
EOF
chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
exit_cleanup() {
    umount $tmpdir/proc
}
mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
# Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT

chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils

# Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
# to return the correct answers.
echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
    chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections

# Include the desktop and laptop task
for test in desktop laptop ; do
    echo &gt; $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &amp;lt;&amp;lt;EOF
#!/bin/sh
exit 2
EOF
    chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
done

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install

echo deb $mirror $to main &gt; $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
fuser -mv
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
kdebase-workspace-data&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
(KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
packages.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Skolelinux er laget for sentraldrifting, naturligvis</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_er_laget_for_sentraldrifting__naturligvis.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Det er merkelig hvordan myter om Skolelinux overlever.  En slik
myte er at Skolelinux ikke kan sentraldriftes og ha sentralt plasserte
tjenermaskiner.  I siste Computerworld Norge er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article169432.ece&quot;&gt;IT-sjef
Viggo Billdal i Steinkjer intervjuet&lt;/a&gt;, og forteller uten
blygsel:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vi hadde Skolelinux, men det har vi sluttet med. Vi testet
om det lønte seg med Microsoft eller en åpen plattform. Vi fant ut at
Microsoft egentlig var totalt sett bedre egnet. Det var store
driftskostnader med Skolelinux, blant annet på grunn av
desentraliserte servere. Det var komplisert, så vi gikk vekk fra det
og bruker nå bare Windows.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;En &lt;a
href=&quot;https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/bruker/2010-June/009101.html&quot;&gt;rask
sjekk&lt;/a&gt; mot den norske brukerlista i Skolelinuxprosjektet forteller
at Steinkjers forsøk foregikk fram til 2004/2005, og at Røysing skole
i Steinkjer skal ha vært svært fornøyd med Skolelinux men at kommunen
overkjørte skolen og krevde at de gikk over til Windows.  Et søk på
nettet sendte meg til
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dn.no/multimedia/archive/00090/Dagens_it_nr__18_90826a.pdf&quot;&gt;Dagens
IT nr. 18 2005&lt;/a&gt; hvor en kan lese på side 18:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Inge Tømmerås ved Røysing skole i Steinkjer kjører ennå
Microsoft, men forteller at kompetanseutfordringen med Skolelinux ikke
var så stor.  ­ Jeg syntes Skolelinux var utrolig lett å drifte uten
forkunnskaper. Men man må jo selvsagt ha tilgang på ekstern kompetanse
til installasjoner og maskinvarefeil, sier Tømmerås.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Som systemarkitekten bak Skolelinux, kan jeg bare riste på hodet
over påstanden om at Skolelinux krever desentraliserte tjenere.
Skolelinux-arkitekturen er laget for sentralisert drift og plassering
av tjenerne lokalt eller sentralt alt etter behov og nettkapasitet.
Den er modellert på nettverks- og tjenerløsningen som brukes på
Universitetet i Tromsø og Oslo, der jeg jobber med utvikling av
driftstjenester.  Dette er det heldigvis noen som har fått med seg, og
jeg er glad for å kunne sitere fra en kommentar på den overnevnte
artikkelen.  Min venn og gamle kollega Sturle Sunde forteller der:

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I Flora kommune køyrer vi Skulelinux på skular med alt frå 15 til
meir enn 500 elevar. Dei store skulane har eigen tenar, for det er
mest praktisk. Eg, som er driftsansvarleg for heile nettet, ser
sjeldan dei tenarane fysisk, men at dei står der gjer skulane mindre
avhengige av eksterne linjer som er trege eller dyre. Dei minste
skulane har ikkje eigen tenar. Å bruke sentral tenar er heller ikkje
noko problem. Småskulane klarar seg fint med 1 mbit-linje til ein
sentral tenar eller tenaren på ein større skule.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Det beste med Skulelinux er halvtjukke klientar. Dei treng ikkje
harddisk og brukar minimalt med ressursar på tenaren fordi dei køyrer
programma lokalt. Eit klasserom med 30 sju-åtte år gamle maskiner har
mykje meir CPU og RAM totalt enn nokon moderne tenar til under
millionen. Det trengst to kommandoar på den sentrale tenaren for å
oppdatere alle klientane, både tynne og halvtjukke. Vi har ingen
problem med diskar som ryk heller, som var eit problem før fordi
elevane sat og sparka i maskinene. Og dei krev lite bandbreidde i
nettet, so det er fullt mogleg å køyre slike på småskular med trege
linjer mot tenaren på ein større skule.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Flora kommune har nesten 800 Linux-maskiner i sitt skulenett, og
ein person som tek seg av drift av heile nettet, inkludert tenarar,
klientar, operativsystem, programvare, heimekontorløysing og
administrasjon av brukarar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No skal det seiast at vi ikkje køyrer rein Skulelinux ut av
boksen. Vi har gjort ein del tilpassingar mot noko Novell-greier som
var der frå før, og som har komplisert installasjonen vår. Etter at
oppsettet var gjort har løysinga vore stabil og kravd minimalt med
arbeid.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Jeg vet at Narvik, Harstad og Oslo er kommuner der Skolelinux
sentraldriftes med sentrale tjenere.  Det forteller meg at Steinkjers
IT-sjef neppe bør skylde på Skolelinux-løsningen for sine 5 år gamle
minner.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>A manual for standards wars...</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 6 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Via the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html&quot;&gt;blog
of Rob Weir&lt;/a&gt; I came across the very interesting essay named
&lt;a href=&quot;http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf&quot;&gt;The Art of
Standards Wars&lt;/a&gt; (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
following the standards wars of today.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
the Skolelinux build servers:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
  vendor                    count
  Dell Computer Corporation     1
    PowerEdge 1750              1
  IBM                           1
    eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
  Intel                         2
  [no-dmi-info]                 3
maintainer:~#
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
option to list the individual machines.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A larger list is
&lt;a href=&quot;http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/&quot;&gt;available from the the
city of Narvik&lt;/a&gt;, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
collector.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 1 Jun 2010 17:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
wait.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I came across two bugs related to this issue,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/583312&quot;&gt;#583312&lt;/a&gt; initially filed
against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/524751&quot;&gt;#524751&lt;/a&gt; initially filed against
kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
issues are known and should be solved:

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The wicd package seen to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/508289&quot;&gt;break NFS mounting&lt;/a&gt; and
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/581586&quot;&gt;network setup&lt;/a&gt; when
parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
seem to be on the case.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The nvidia X driver seem to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/583312&quot;&gt;have a race condition&lt;/a&gt;
triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
maintainer is on the case.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/575080&quot;&gt;try to switch back&lt;/a&gt; to
sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
/etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
sysv-rc get a working shutdown.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
definitely helped freeing some time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
/cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
going to work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
&quot;external&quot; media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
/cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
Edu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html&quot;&gt;libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/a&gt;
package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
into unstable.  The
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html&quot;&gt;pam-python&lt;/a&gt;
package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package
passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
for nscd in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;BTS report
#485282&lt;/a&gt; is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
care of the caching of passwords and group information.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
find time to make sure the next release will include both the
Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
and I am sure we will find a good solution.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
on the home directory servers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 22:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
expected, if I am to believe the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html&quot;&gt;input
on debian-devel@&lt;/a&gt;, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
version.&lt;/p&gt;

More information about
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt; is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
CONCURRENCY=none
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 21:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary&quot;&gt;sitesummary
system&lt;/a&gt; is used to keep track of the machines in the school
network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
to update the DHCP configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
this on the collector host:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
perl -MSiteSummary -e &#39;for_all_hosts(sub { print join(&quot; &quot;, get_macaddresses(shift)), &quot;\n&quot;; });&#39;
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
written yet.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Forcing new users to change their password on first login</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 2 May 2010 13:47:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
change the password on the first login attempt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
settings in /etc/shadow:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
root@tjener:~# chage -l test
Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
Password expires                                        : never
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
root@tjener:~#
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
intended:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
root@tjener:~# chage -l test
Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
Password expires                                        : never
Password inactive                                       : never
Account expires                                         : never
Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
root@tjener:~#  
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
sure only the user itself have the account password?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
Squeeze, and &#39;&lt;tt&gt;chage -d 0 username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; do work there.  I have not
tested it on Lenny yet.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
equivalent command to expire a password is &#39;&lt;tt&gt;passwd -e
username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;, which insert zero into the date of the last password
change.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
and go.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
The setup would consist of the following:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
   the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
   the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
   server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
   central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
   request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
   automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
   and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
   hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
   request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
   can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
   the fish protocol in KDE?&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
   authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
   to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
   to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
   or the Fedora developed
   &lt;a href=&quot;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD&quot;&gt;System
   Security Services Daemon&lt;/a&gt; packages.&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
   using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
   directory, using unison.&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
   their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
   the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
   system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
   implemented.&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
   sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.&lt;/li&gt;

 &lt;li&gt;It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
   cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
   local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
(&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/566718&quot;&gt;#566718&lt;/a&gt;) and nslcd (or
perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/&quot;&gt;Yesterdays
NUUG presentation&lt;/a&gt; about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
users and cryptographic keys instead.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
to work properly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
up in a few days.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
package in 2004 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/230422&quot;&gt;#230422&lt;/a&gt;),
and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
Today, this finally paid off.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
a generic way that work with all display managers using this
framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.&lt;p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; was finally
shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps it even is time for some partying?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
further.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
configured to be a server for the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary&quot;&gt;SiteSummary
system&lt;/a&gt; I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
and Nagios configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
the machine.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
administrator need to run &quot;&lt;tt&gt;htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
nagiosadmin&lt;/tt&gt;&quot; to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
everything is taken care of.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Opphavet til Skolelinux-prosjektet</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Opphavet_til_Skolelinux_prosjektet.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Opphavet_til_Skolelinux_prosjektet.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;De færreste er klar over at Skolelinux-prosjektet kom som et resultat
av en avgjørelse på årsmøtet i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt; i 2000-06-29, der Håkon Wium
Lie, da varamedlem i styret, tok på seg oppdraget om å starte et
initiativ kalt &quot;Teach the Teacher&quot;, som skulle være et initiativ for
å få fri programvare og unix-lignende operativsystemer inn i Skolen.
Tanken var at en måtte starte med lærerne for at ungene skulle få
mulighet til å møte en bedre IT-hverdag.  Jeg var tilstede på
møtet, og hadde sans for ideen, men intet skjedde.  På vårparten
2001 ble det arrangert en demonstrasjon i anledning at First Tuesday
hadde invitert Microsoft til et møte for å fortelle om fremtidens
Internet.  Dette provoserte endel av oss, og EFN og NUUG tok initiativ
til å arrangere
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/60982/first-tuesday-mote-med-microsoft-protest&quot;&gt;en
demonstrasjon utenfor lokalene 2001-05-21&lt;/a&gt;.  Blant de som sto bak
demonstrasjonen var Vidar Bakke fra NUUG og Håkon W. Lie fra EFN.
Etter demonstrasjonen arrangerte Håkon en fest hjemme hos seg der alle
som hadde vært aktive i demonstrasjonsplanlegging og gjennomføringen
deltok.  Før festen var jeg blitt lei av å vente på at Håkon skulle ta
initiativ til &quot;Teach the Teacher&quot;, og for å forsøke å få litt fremgang
besteme jeg meg for å benytte anledningen hos Håkon til å snakke om
behovet for å hjelpe skolene i gang med bedre datasystemer bestående
av fri programvare og unix-lignende operativsystemer.  Flere var
interessert, og Knut Yrvin tenkte på ideen.  Han
&lt;a href=&quot;http://developer.skolelinux.no/brev/2001-06-28-invitasjon-skolelinux.txt&quot;&gt;ropte
sammen&lt;/a&gt; til et stiftelsesmøte i prosjektet i sin arbeidsgivers
Objectwares lokaler ved Ullevål stadion 2001-07-02, og jeg ble med.
Resten er historie. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Endelig operativt webbasert medlemsregister for Fri programvare i skolen</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_operativt_webbasert_medlemsregister_for_Fri_programvare_i_skolen.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_operativt_webbasert_medlemsregister_for_Fri_programvare_i_skolen.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Mon, 2 Nov 2009 22:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Under helgens utviklersamling i
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; fikk jeg endelig
satt meg ned sammen med Ronny Aasen i styret for å få et webbasert
medlemsregister tilbake på plass for foreningen som passer på
skolelinuxprosjektet.  Etter flere års knot og problemer, er nå
memberdb satt opp og klart til bruk.  Import av det gamle
medlemsregisteret har vist seg vanskelig, så alle medlemmer bes om å
registrere seg på nytt.  Hvis du støtter FRiSKs formål så er du
hjertelig velkommen til
&lt;a href=&quot;http://medlem.friprogramvareiskolen.no/&quot;&gt;å melde deg
inn&lt;/a&gt;. Formålet lyder:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;Linux i skolen skal tilrettelegge for og informere om bruk
av fri programvare, i henhold til Debian Free Software Guidelines av
2002-02-03, i den norske skolen, slik som f.eks. Linux og
GNU.&lt;/blockquote&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;,
we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
specifications to cleam up this mess.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
(mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
new IETF work group?&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Endelig er &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214&quot;&gt;Lenny&lt;/a&gt; gitt ut.
Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; /
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; ferdig
oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
&lt;tt&gt;insserv&lt;/tt&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Endelig norsk stavekontroll med støtte for ord med bindestrek</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_norsk_stavekontroll_med_st_tte_for_ord_med_bindestrek.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_norsk_stavekontroll_med_st_tte_for_ord_med_bindestrek.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Etter flere års mislykkede forsøk på å skrive om byggesystemet for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://no.speling.org/&quot;&gt;den norske stavekontrollen for bokmål
og nynorsk&lt;/a&gt; til å ikke bruke bindestrek som ordskillemarkør, lyktes jeg
endelig første juledag.  Bruken av bindestrek som ordskillemarkør har
gjort det umulig å få med ord med bindestrek i
stavekontrolldatagrunnlaget, slik at ord som e-post og CD-spiller ikke
kunne godtas av stavekontrollen.  Hadde litt tid til overs å bruke på
stavekontrollen, og satte meg ned med to kopier av byggsystemet og en
liten testdatafil, og byttet ut - med = på utvalgte steder i
byggsystemet og datafilen helt til jeg fikk samme resultat med det
gamle og det nye byggsystemet.  Dette tror jeg var forsøk 4, der de
foregående har feilet uten at jeg klarte å forstå hvorfor.  Det sier
kanskje litt om kompleksiteten i det originale byggsystemet som Rune
Kleveland laget i sin tid.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Etter å ha endret byggsystemet, var neste steg å importere ordene
med bindestrek.  Vi har en rekke slike i databasene for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://tyge.sslug.dk/~korsvoll/nb.speling.org/htdocs/&quot;&gt;bokmål&lt;/a&gt;
og
&lt;a href=&quot;http://tyge.sslug.dk/~korsvoll/nn.speling.org/htdocs/&quot;&gt;nynorsk&lt;/a&gt;
for korrektur av datagrunnlaget for stavekontrollen, og etter importen
skulle nå 10350 nye ord bli godkjent som korrekt stavede ord av
stavekontrollen.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 7 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
finish it before the weekend was up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
of these cards.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
notes are available on
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;the
Debian wiki&lt;/a&gt;.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn&#39;t supported by the
totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
be the only one fitting our needs. :/&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        </channel>
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