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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         23rd April 2014
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
  32 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
  33 So I implemented one, using
  34 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
  35 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
  36 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
  37 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
  38 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
  39 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
  40
  41 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
  42 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
  43 packages to install.  The first part is in
  44 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
  45 this:</p>
  46
  47 <p><blockquote><pre>
  48 Task: isenkram
  49 Section: hardware
  50 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
  51  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
  52  proposed.
  53 Test-new-install: mark show
  54 Relevance: 8
  55 Packages: for-current-hardware
  56 </pre></blockquote></p>
  57
  58 <p>The second part is in
  59 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
  60 this:</p>
  61
  62 <p><blockquote><pre>
  63 #!/bin/sh
  64 #
  65 (
  66     isenkram-lookup
  67     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
  68 ) | sort -u
  69 </pre></blockquote></p>
  70
  71 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
  72 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
  73 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
  74 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
  75 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
  76 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
  77
  78 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
  79 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
  80 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
  81 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
  82 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
  83 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
  84 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
  85 the python-apt code (bug
  86 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
  87 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
  88 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
  89 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
  90 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
  91 unstable today.</p>
  92
  93 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
  94 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
  95 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
  96 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
  97 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
  98 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
  99 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
 100 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
 101 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
 102
 103 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
 104 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
 105 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
 106 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
 107 package.  See also
 108 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
 109 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
 110 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
 111 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
 112
 113       </div>
 114       <div class="tags">
 115
 116
 117         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 118
 119
 120       </div>
 121     </div>
 122     <div class="padding"></div>
 123
 124     <div class="entry">
 125       <div class="title">
 126         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
 127       </div>
 128       <div class="date">
 129         15th April 2014
 130       </div>
 131       <div class="body">
 132         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 133 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
 134 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
 135 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
 136 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
 137 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
 138
 139 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
 140 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
 141 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
 142 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
 143 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
 144 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
 145 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
 146
 147 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
 148 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
 149 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
 150 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
 151 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
 152 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
 153 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
 154 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
 155 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
 156 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
 157 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
 158 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
 159
 160 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
 161 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
 162 become root:</p>
 163
 164 <p><pre>
 165 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 166   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 167   u-boot-tools
 168 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 169   freedom-maker
 170 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 171 </pre></p>
 172
 173 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 174 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
 175 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
 176 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
 177 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
 178 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
 179 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
 180 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
 181
 182 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 183 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 184 the preseed values:</p>
 185
 186 <p><pre>
 187 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 188 </pre></p>
 189
 190 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
 191 it still work.</p>
 192
 193 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
 194 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
 195 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
 196 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
 197 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
 198 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
 199 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
 200
 201 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 202 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 203 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 204 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 205 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 206 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 207
 208       </div>
 209       <div class="tags">
 210
 211
 212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 213
 214
 215       </div>
 216     </div>
 217     <div class="padding"></div>
 218
 219     <div class="entry">
 220       <div class="title">
 221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
 222       </div>
 223       <div class="date">
 224          9th April 2014
 225       </div>
 226       <div class="body">
 227         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
 228 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
 229 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
 230 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
 231 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
 232 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
 233 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
 234 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
 235 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
 236 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
 237 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
 238 have looked at a system called
 239 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
 240 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
 241
 242 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
 243 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
 244 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
 245 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
 246 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
 247 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
 248 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
 249 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
 250 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
 251 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
 252 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
 253 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
 254 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
 255
 256 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
 257 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
 258 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
 259 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
 260 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
 261 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
 262 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
 263 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
 264 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
 265 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
 266 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
 267 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
 268 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
 269 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
 270 account.</p>
 271
 272 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
 273 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
 274 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
 275 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
 276 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
 277 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
 278 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
 279
 280 <p><blockquote><pre>
 281 [s3c]
 282 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 283 backend-login: API-login
 284 backend-password: API-password
 285 fs-passphrase: local-password
 286 </pre></blockquote></p>
 287
 288 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
 289 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
 290 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
 291 details and password to create it:</p>
 292
 293 <p><blockquote><pre>
 294 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
 295 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 296   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 297 Enter backend login:
 298 Enter backend password:
 299 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
 300 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
 301 Enter encryption password:
 302 Confirm encryption password:
 303 Generating random encryption key...
 304 Creating metadata tables...
 305 Dumping metadata...
 306 ..objects..
 307 ..blocks..
 308 ..inodes..
 309 ..inode_blocks..
 310 ..symlink_targets..
 311 ..names..
 312 ..contents..
 313 ..ext_attributes..
 314 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 315 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
 316 # </pre></blockquote></p>
 317
 318 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
 319
 320 <p><blockquote><pre>
 321 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 322   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 323 Using 4 upload threads.
 324 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
 325 Reading metadata...
 326 ..objects..
 327 ..blocks..
 328 ..inodes..
 329 ..inode_blocks..
 330 ..symlink_targets..
 331 ..names..
 332 ..contents..
 333 ..ext_attributes..
 334 Mounting filesystem...
 335 # df -h /s3ql
 336 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
 337 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
 338 #
 339 </pre></blockquote></p>
 340
 341 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
 342 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
 343 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
 344 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
 345 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
 346 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
 347
 348 <p><blockquote><pre>
 349 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
 350 #
 351 </pre></blockquote></p>
 352
 353 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
 354 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
 355 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
 356 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
 357 file system:</p>
 358
 359 <p><blockquote><pre>
 360 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 361 Using cached metadata.
 362 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
 363 Checking DB integrity...
 364 Creating temporary extra indices...
 365 Checking lost+found...
 366 Checking cached objects...
 367 Checking names (refcounts)...
 368 Checking contents (names)...
 369 Checking contents (inodes)...
 370 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
 371 Checking objects (reference counts)...
 372 Checking objects (backend)...
 373 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
 374 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
 375 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
 376 Checking objects (sizes)...
 377 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
 378 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
 379 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
 380 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
 381 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
 382 Checking inodes (sizes)...
 383 Checking extended attributes (names)...
 384 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
 385 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
 386 Checking directory reachability...
 387 Checking unix conventions...
 388 Checking referential integrity...
 389 Dropping temporary indices...
 390 Backing up old metadata...
 391 Dumping metadata...
 392 ..objects..
 393 ..blocks..
 394 ..inodes..
 395 ..inode_blocks..
 396 ..symlink_targets..
 397 ..names..
 398 ..contents..
 399 ..ext_attributes..
 400 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 401 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
 402 #
 403 </pre></blockquote></p>
 404
 405 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
 406 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
 407 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
 408 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
 409 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
 410 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
 411 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
 412 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
 413 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
 414 working set.</p>
 415
 416 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
 417 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
 418 busy:</p>
 419
 420 <p><blockquote><pre>
 421 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 422   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 423 Using 8 upload threads.
 424 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
 425 #
 426 </pre></blockquote></p>
 427
 428 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
 429 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
 430 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
 431 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
 432 s3qlctrl:
 433
 434 <p><blockquote><pre>
 435 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
 436 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
 437 #
 438 </pre></blockquote></p>
 439
 440 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
 441 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
 442 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
 443 a report:</p>
 444
 445 <p><blockquote><pre>
 446 # s3qlstat /s3ql
 447 Directory entries:    9141
 448 Inodes:               9143
 449 Data blocks:          8851
 450 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
 451 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
 452 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
 453 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
 454 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
 455 #
 456 </pre></blockquote></p>
 457
 458 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
 459 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
 460 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
 461 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
 462 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
 463 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
 464 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
 465 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
 466 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
 467 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
 468 best.</p>
 469
 470 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
 471 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
 472 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
 473 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
 474 poster is titled
 475 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
 476 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
 477 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
 478 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
 479 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
 480
 481 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
 482 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
 483 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
 484 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
 485 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
 486 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
 487 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
 488 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
 489
 490 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
 491 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
 492 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
 493 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
 494 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
 495 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
 496 only read from it.</p>
 497
 498 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 499 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 500 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 501
 502       </div>
 503       <div class="tags">
 504
 505
 506         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 507
 508
 509       </div>
 510     </div>
 511     <div class="padding"></div>
 512
 513     <div class="entry">
 514       <div class="title">
 515         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
 516       </div>
 517       <div class="date">
 518         14th March 2014
 519       </div>
 520       <div class="body">
 521         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 522 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
 523 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
 524 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
 525 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
 526 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
 527 release (0.2).</p>
 528
 529 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
 530 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
 531 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
 532 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
 533 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
 534 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
 535 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
 536 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
 537 and build using
 538 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
 539 with a user with sudo access to become root:
 540
 541 <pre>
 542 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 543   freedom-maker
 544 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 545   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 546   u-boot-tools
 547 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 548 </pre>
 549
 550 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 551 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
 552 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
 553 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
 554 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
 555 kpartx call.</p>
 556
 557 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 558 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 559 the preseed values:</p>
 560
 561 <pre>
 562 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 563 </pre>
 564
 565 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
 566 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
 567 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
 568 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
 569 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
 570 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
 571
 572 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 573 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 574 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 575 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 576 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 577 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 578
 579       </div>
 580       <div class="tags">
 581
 582
 583         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 584
 585
 586       </div>
 587     </div>
 588     <div class="padding"></div>
 589
 590     <div class="entry">
 591       <div class="title">
 592         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
 593       </div>
 594       <div class="date">
 595         22nd February 2014
 596       </div>
 597       <div class="body">
 598         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
 599 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
 600 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
 601 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
 602 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
 603 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
 604 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
 605 proper home since then.</p>
 606
 607 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
 608 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
 609 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
 610 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
 611 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
 612
 613 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
 614 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
 615 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
 616 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
 617 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
 618 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
 619 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
 620 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
 621 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
 622
 623       </div>
 624       <div class="tags">
 625
 626
 627         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 628
 629
 630       </div>
 631     </div>
 632     <div class="padding"></div>
 633
 634     <div class="entry">
 635       <div class="title">
 636         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
 637       </div>
 638       <div class="date">
 639          3rd February 2014
 640       </div>
 641       <div class="body">
 642         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
 643 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
 644 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
 645 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
 646 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
 647 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
 648 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
 649 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
 650 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
 651
 652 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
 653 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
 654 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
 655 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
 656 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
 657 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
 658
 659 <p><blockquote><pre>
 660 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
 661 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
 662 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
 663 dhclient /dev/eth0
 664 </pre></blockquote></p>
 665
 666 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
 667 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
 668 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
 669
 670 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
 671 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
 672 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
 673 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
 674 side.</p>
 675
 676 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
 677 stuff:</p>
 678
 679 <p><blockquote><pre>
 680 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
 681 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
 682 EOF
 683 apt-get update
 684 apt-get dist-upgrade
 685 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
 686     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
 687 update-alternatives --config runsystem
 688 </pre></blockquote></p>
 689
 690 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
 691 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
 692 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
 693 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
 694 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
 695 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
 696 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
 697 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
 698 ssh instead.
 699
 700 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
 701 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
 702 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
 703 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
 704 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
 705 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
 706
 707 <p><blockquote><pre>
 708 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
 709 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
 710 EOF
 711 </pre></blockquote></p>
 712
 713 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
 714 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
 715 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
 716 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
 717
 718 <p><blockquote><pre>
 719 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
 720 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
 721 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
 722 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
 723 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
 724 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
 725 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
 726 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
 727 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
 728 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
 729 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
 730 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
 731 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
 732 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
 733 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
 734 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
 735 #
 736 </pre></blockquote></p>
 737
 738 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
 739 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
 740 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
 741 command line stuff.<p>
 742
 743       </div>
 744       <div class="tags">
 745
 746
 747         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 748
 749
 750       </div>
 751     </div>
 752     <div class="padding"></div>
 753
 754     <div class="entry">
 755       <div class="title">
 756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
 757       </div>
 758       <div class="date">
 759         14th January 2014
 760       </div>
 761       <div class="body">
 762         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
 763 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
 764 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
 765 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
 766 the source.  The company behind it provide
 767 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
 768 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
 769 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
 770 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
 771 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
 772 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
 773 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
 774 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
 775 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
 776 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
 777 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
 778 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
 779 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
 780 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
 781 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
 782 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
 783 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
 784 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
 785 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
 786
 787 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
 788
 789 <ul>
 790
 791   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
 792   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
 793   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
 794
 795 </ul>
 796
 797 <p>You can
 798 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
 799 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
 800 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
 801 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
 802 include a test suite check.</p>
 803
 804       </div>
 805       <div class="tags">
 806
 807
 808         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 809
 810
 811       </div>
 812     </div>
 813     <div class="padding"></div>
 814
 815     <div class="entry">
 816       <div class="title">
 817         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
 818       </div>
 819       <div class="date">
 820         24th November 2013
 821       </div>
 822       <div class="body">
 823         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
 824 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
 825 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
 826 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
 827 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
 828 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
 829 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
 830 is working on.  I checked the
 831 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
 832 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
 833 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
 834 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
 835 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
 836 These are the release notes:</p>
 837
 838 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
 839
 840 <ul>
 841
 842   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
 843    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
 844    up.</li>
 845
 846   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
 847
 848   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
 849    Matthias Klose.</li>
 850
 851   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
 852    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
 853
 854   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
 855    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
 856    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
 857
 858 </ul>
 859
 860 <p>You can
 861 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
 862 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
 863 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
 864 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
 865 include a testsuite check.</p>
 866
 867       </div>
 868       <div class="tags">
 869
 870
 871         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 872
 873
 874       </div>
 875     </div>
 876     <div class="padding"></div>
 877
 878     <div class="entry">
 879       <div class="title">
 880         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
 881       </div>
 882       <div class="date">
 883          2nd November 2013
 884       </div>
 885       <div class="body">
 886         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
 887 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
 888 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
 889 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
 890 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
 891
 892 <p><pre>
 893 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
 894 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
 895 # Provides:          rsyslog
 896 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
 897 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
 898 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
 899 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
 900 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
 901 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
 902 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
 903 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
 904 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
 905 ### END INIT INFO
 906 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
 907 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
 908 </pre></p>
 909
 910 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
 911 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
 912 info/comments.</p>
 913
 914 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
 915 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
 916
 917 <p><pre>
 918 #!/bin/sh
 919
 920 # Define LSB log_* functions.
 921 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
 922 # and status_of_proc is working.
 923 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
 924
 925 #
 926 # Function that starts the daemon/service
 927
 928 #
 929 do_start()
 930 {
 931         # Return
 932         #   0 if daemon has been started
 933         #   1 if daemon was already running
 934         #   2 if daemon could not be started
 935         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
 936                 || return 1
 937         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
 938                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
 939                 || return 2
 940         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
 941         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
 942         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
 943 }
 944
 945 #
 946 # Function that stops the daemon/service
 947 #
 948 do_stop()
 949 {
 950         # Return
 951         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
 952         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
 953         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
 954         #   other if a failure occurred
 955         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
 956         RETVAL="$?"
 957         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
 958         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
 959         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
 960         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
 961         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
 962         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
 963         # sleep for some time.
 964         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
 965         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
 966         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
 967         rm -f $PIDFILE
 968         return "$RETVAL"
 969 }
 970
 971 #
 972 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
 973 #
 974 do_reload() {
 975         #
 976         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
 977         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
 978         # then implement that here.
 979         #
 980         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
 981         return 0
 982 }
 983
 984 SCRIPTNAME=$1
 985 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
 986 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
 987 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
 988     script="$1"
 989     shift
 990     . $script
 991 else
 992     exit 0
 993 fi
 994
 995 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
 996 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
 997
 998 # Exit if the package is not installed
 999 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
1000
1001 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
1002 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
1003
1004 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
1005 . /lib/init/vars.sh
1006
1007 case "$1" in
1008   start)
1009         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
1010         do_start
1011         case "$?" in
1012                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1013                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1014         esac
1015         ;;
1016   stop)
1017         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
1018         do_stop
1019         case "$?" in
1020                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1021                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1022         esac
1023         ;;
1024   status)
1025         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
1026         ;;
1027   #reload|force-reload)
1028         #
1029         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
1030         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
1031         #
1032         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
1033         #do_reload
1034         #log_end_msg $?
1035         #;;
1036   restart|force-reload)
1037         #
1038         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
1039         # 'force-reload' alias
1040         #
1041         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
1042         do_stop
1043         case "$?" in
1044           0|1)
1045                 do_start
1046                 case "$?" in
1047                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1048                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
1049                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
1050                 esac
1051                 ;;
1052           *)
1053                 # Failed to stop
1054                 log_end_msg 1
1055                 ;;
1056         esac
1057         ;;
1058   *)
1059         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
1060         exit 3
1061         ;;
1062 esac
1063
1064 :
1065 </pre></p>
1066
1067 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
1068 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
1069 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
1070 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
1071
1072 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
1073 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
1074 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
1075 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
1076 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
1077
1078       </div>
1079       <div class="tags">
1080
1081
1082         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1083
1084
1085       </div>
1086     </div>
1087     <div class="padding"></div>
1088
1089     <div class="entry">
1090       <div class="title">
1091         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
1092       </div>
1093       <div class="date">
1094          1st November 2013
1095       </div>
1096       <div class="body">
1097         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
1098 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
1099 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
1100 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
1101 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
1102 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
1103 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
1104 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
1105 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
1106 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
1107 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
1108 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
1109
1110 <p>The source is now available from
1111 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
1112
1113       </div>
1114       <div class="tags">
1115
1116
1117         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1118
1119
1120       </div>
1121     </div>
1122     <div class="padding"></div>
1123
1124     <div class="entry">
1125       <div class="title">
1126         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
1127       </div>
1128       <div class="date">
1129         27th October 2013
1130       </div>
1131       <div class="body">
1132         <p>The
1133 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
1134 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
1135 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
1136 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
1137 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
1138 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
1139 of a plan to simplify the build system for
1140 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
1141 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
1142 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
1143 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
1144 Raspberry Pi.</p>
1145
1146 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
1147 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
1148 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
1149 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
1150 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
1151 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
1152 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
1153 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
1154 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
1155 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
1156 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
1157 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
1158 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
1159 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
1160 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
1161 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
1162 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
1163 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
1164 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
1165 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
1166 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
1167 available from
1168 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
1169 upstream project page</a>.</p>
1170
1171 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
1172 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
1173 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
1174 list:</p>
1175
1176 <p><pre>
1177 #!/bin/sh
1178 set -e # Exit on first error
1179 rootdir="$1"
1180 cd "$rootdir"
1181 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
1182 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
1183 EOF
1184 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
1185 # install a kernel somewhere too.
1186 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
1187     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1188 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1189 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
1190 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
1191 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
1192 </pre></p>
1193
1194 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
1195 to build the image:</p>
1196
1197 <pre>
1198 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
1199     --variant minbase \
1200     --arch armel \
1201     --distribution jessie \
1202     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
1203     --image test.img \
1204     --size 600M \
1205     --bootsize 64M \
1206     --boottype vfat \
1207     --log-level debug \
1208     --verbose \
1209     --no-kernel \
1210     --no-extlinux \
1211     --root-password raspberry \
1212     --hostname raspberrypi \
1213     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
1214     --customize `pwd`/customize \
1215     --package netbase \
1216     --package git-core \
1217     --package binutils \
1218     --package ca-certificates \
1219     --package wget \
1220     --package kmod
1221 </pre></p>
1222
1223 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
1224 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
1225 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
1226 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
1227 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
1228 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
1229 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
1230
1231 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
1232 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
1233 build dependency list.</p>
1234
1235 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
1236 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
1237 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
1238 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
1239
1240       </div>
1241       <div class="tags">
1242
1243
1244         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
1245
1246
1247       </div>
1248     </div>
1249     <div class="padding"></div>
1250
1251     <div class="entry">
1252       <div class="title">
1253         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
1254       </div>
1255       <div class="date">
1256         15th October 2013
1257       </div>
1258       <div class="body">
1259         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
1260 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
1261 these. :)</p>
1262
1263 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
1264 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
1265 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
1266 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
1267 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
1268 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
1269 hope you will to. :)</p>
1270
1271 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
1272 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
1273 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
1274 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
1275 donated.  Are you next?</p>
1276
1277 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
1278 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
1279 statement under the heading
1280 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
1281 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
1282 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
1283 too.</p>
1284
1285       </div>
1286       <div class="tags">
1287
1288
1289         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1290
1291
1292       </div>
1293     </div>
1294     <div class="padding"></div>
1295
1296     <div class="entry">
1297       <div class="title">
1298         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
1299       </div>
1300       <div class="date">
1301         27th September 2013
1302       </div>
1303       <div class="body">
1304         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
1305 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
1306 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
1307 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
1308
1309 <ul>
1310
1311 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
1312 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
1313
1314 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
1315 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1316
1317 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
1318 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
1319 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
1320 (Youtube)</li>
1321
1322 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
1323 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
1324
1325 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
1326 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1327
1328 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
1329 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
1330 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
1331
1332 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
1333 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
1334 (Youtube)</li>
1335
1336 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
1337 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
1338
1339 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
1340 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
1341
1342 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
1343 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
1344 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
1345
1346 </ul>
1347
1348 <p>A larger list is available from
1349 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
1350 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
1351
1352 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
1353 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
1354 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
1355 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
1356 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
1357 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
1358 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
1359 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
1360 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
1361 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1362 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1363
1364       </div>
1365       <div class="tags">
1366
1367
1368         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1369
1370
1371       </div>
1372     </div>
1373     <div class="padding"></div>
1374
1375     <div class="entry">
1376       <div class="title">
1377         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
1378       </div>
1379       <div class="date">
1380         10th September 2013
1381       </div>
1382       <div class="body">
1383         <p>I was introduced to the
1384 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
1385 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
1386 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
1387 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
1388 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
1389 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
1390 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
1391 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
1392
1393 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
1394 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
1395 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
1396 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
1397 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
1398
1399 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
1400 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
1401 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
1402 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
1403 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
1404 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
1405 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
1406 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
1407 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
1408 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
1409 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
1410 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
1411 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
1412 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
1413 missing in Debian).</p>
1414
1415 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
1416 scripts
1417 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
1418 and a administrative web interface
1419 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
1420 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
1421 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
1422 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
1423 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
1424 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
1425 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
1426 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
1427 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
1428 this is really working yet, see
1429 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
1430 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
1431 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
1432 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
1433 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
1434 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
1435 with lots of half baked features.</p>
1436
1437 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
1438 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
1439 at.</p>
1440
1441 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
1442
1443 <ol>
1444
1445 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
1446 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
1447 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
1448 to the Debian installer:<p>
1449 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
1450
1451 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
1452 install on.</li>
1453
1454 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
1455 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
1456
1457 </ol>
1458
1459 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
1460
1461 <ol>
1462
1463 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
1464 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
1465 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
1466 <pre>
1467 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
1468 </pre></li>
1469 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
1470 <pre>
1471 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
1472    apt-key add -
1473 apt-get update
1474 apt-get install freedombox-setup
1475 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
1476 </pre></li>
1477 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
1478
1479 </ol>
1480
1481 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
1482 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
1483 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
1484 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
1485 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
1486
1487 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
1488 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
1489 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
1490 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
1491
1492 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
1493 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
1494 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
1495 irc.debian.org and the
1496 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
1497 mailing list</a>.</p>
1498
1499 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
1500 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
1501 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
1502 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
1503 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
1504 default password is 'secret'.</p>
1505
1506       </div>
1507       <div class="tags">
1508
1509
1510         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
1511
1512
1513       </div>
1514     </div>
1515     <div class="padding"></div>
1516
1517     <div class="entry">
1518       <div class="title">
1519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
1520       </div>
1521       <div class="date">
1522         18th August 2013
1523       </div>
1524       <div class="body">
1525         <p>Earlier, I reported about
1526 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
1527 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
1528 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
1529 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
1530 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
1531 currently on the disk.</p>
1532
1533 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
1534 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
1535 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
1536 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
1537 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
1538 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
1539 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
1540 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
1541 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
1542 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
1543 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
1544 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
1545 the broken disks.</p>
1546
1547       </div>
1548       <div class="tags">
1549
1550
1551         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1552
1553
1554       </div>
1555     </div>
1556     <div class="padding"></div>
1557
1558     <div class="entry">
1559       <div class="title">
1560         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
1561       </div>
1562       <div class="date">
1563         17th July 2013
1564       </div>
1565       <div class="body">
1566         <p>Today I switched to
1567 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
1568 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
1569 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
1570 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
1571 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
1572 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
1573 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
1574 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
1575 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
1576 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
1577 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
1578 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
1579 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
1580 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
1581 station from now on.</p>
1582
1583 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
1584 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
1585 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
1586 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
1587 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
1588 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
1589 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
1590 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
1591 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
1592 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
1593 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
1594 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
1595
1596 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
1597 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
1598 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
1599 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
1600 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
1601 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
1602 parameters are tuned:</p>
1603
1604 <ul>
1605
1606 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
1607     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
1608
1609 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
1610     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
1611     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
1612
1613 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
1614     systems.</li>
1615
1616 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
1617     /etc/fstab.</li>
1618
1619 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
1620
1621 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
1622     cron.daily).</li>
1623
1624 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
1625     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
1626
1627 </ul>
1628
1629 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
1630 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
1631 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
1632 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
1633 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
1634 from getting the data on the disk (see
1635 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
1636 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
1637 right thing to do.</p>
1638
1639 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
1640 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
1641 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
1642
1643 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
1644 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
1645 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
1646 instead of during my work.</p>
1647
1648 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
1649 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
1650
1651 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
1652 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
1653 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
1654
1655 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
1656 there.</p>
1657
1658 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
1659 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
1660 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
1661 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
1662 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
1663 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
1664 back.</p>
1665
1666       </div>
1667       <div class="tags">
1668
1669
1670         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1671
1672
1673       </div>
1674     </div>
1675     <div class="padding"></div>
1676
1677     <div class="entry">
1678       <div class="title">
1679         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
1680       </div>
1681       <div class="date">
1682         10th July 2013
1683       </div>
1684       <div class="body">
1685         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
1686 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
1687 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
1688 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
1689 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
1690 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
1691 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
1692 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
1693
1694 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
1695 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
1696 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
1697 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
1698 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
1699 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
1700 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
1701 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
1702 lock up when I download a new
1703 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
1704 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
1705 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
1706
1707 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
1708 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
1709 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
1710 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
1711 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
1712 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
1713
1714 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
1715 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
1716 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
1717 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
1718 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
1719 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
1720
1721 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
1722 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
1723 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
1724 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
1725 exist).</p>
1726
1727       </div>
1728       <div class="tags">
1729
1730
1731         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1732
1733
1734       </div>
1735     </div>
1736     <div class="padding"></div>
1737
1738     <div class="entry">
1739       <div class="title">
1740         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
1741       </div>
1742       <div class="date">
1743          9th July 2013
1744       </div>
1745       <div class="body">
1746         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
1747 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
1748 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
1749 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
1750 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1751 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
1752 Bitraf</a>.</p>
1753
1754 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
1755 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
1756 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
1757 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
1758 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
1759
1760       </div>
1761       <div class="tags">
1762
1763
1764         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
1765
1766
1767       </div>
1768     </div>
1769     <div class="padding"></div>
1770
1771     <div class="entry">
1772       <div class="title">
1773         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
1774       </div>
1775       <div class="date">
1776          5th July 2013
1777       </div>
1778       <div class="body">
1779         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
1780 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
1781 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
1782 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
1783 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
1784 ended up picking a
1785 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
1786 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
1787 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
1788 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
1789 on that below.</p>
1790
1791 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1792 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1793 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
1794 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
1795 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1796 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
1797 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
1798 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
1799 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
1800
1801 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
1802 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
1803 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
1804 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
1805 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
1806 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
1807 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
1808
1809 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
1810 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
1811
1812 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
1813 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
1814 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
1815 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
1816 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
1817 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
1818 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
1819 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
1820 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
1821 kernel developers as
1822 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
1823 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
1824 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
1825 Lenovo forums, both for
1826 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
1827 2012-11-10</a> and for
1828 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
1829 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
1830 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
1831 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
1832 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
1833 There is even a
1834 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
1835 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
1836 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
1837
1838 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
1839 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
1840 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
1841 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
1842 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
1843 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
1844 fixed. :)</p>
1845
1846       </div>
1847       <div class="tags">
1848
1849
1850         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1851
1852
1853       </div>
1854     </div>
1855     <div class="padding"></div>
1856
1857     <div class="entry">
1858       <div class="title">
1859         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
1860       </div>
1861       <div class="date">
1862          4th July 2013
1863       </div>
1864       <div class="body">
1865         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
1866 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
1867 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
1868 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
1869 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
1870 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
1871 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
1872 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
1873 with an expencive door stop.</p>
1874
1875 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
1876 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
1877 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
1878 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
1879 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
1880 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
1881 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
1882
1883 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
1884 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
1885 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
1886 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
1887 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
1888 new laptop now. :)</p>
1889
1890 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
1891
1892       </div>
1893       <div class="tags">
1894
1895
1896         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1897
1898
1899       </div>
1900     </div>
1901     <div class="padding"></div>
1902
1903     <div class="entry">
1904       <div class="title">
1905         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
1906       </div>
1907       <div class="date">
1908         25th June 2013
1909       </div>
1910       <div class="body">
1911         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
1912 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
1913 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
1914 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
1915 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
1916 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
1917 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
1918 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
1919 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
1920 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
1921 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
1922
1923 <p><pre>
1924 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
1925 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
1926 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
1927 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
1928 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
1929 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
1930 firmware-ipw2x00
1931 firmware-ipw2x00
1932 Preconfiguring packages ...
1933 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
1934 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
1935 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
1936 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
1937 #
1938 </pre></p>
1939
1940 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
1941 printed instead:</p>
1942
1943 <p><pre>
1944 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
1945 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
1946 #
1947 </pre></p>
1948
1949 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
1950 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
1951
1952 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
1953 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
1954 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
1955 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
1956 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
1957 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
1958 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
1959 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
1960 machine.</p>
1961
1962 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
1963 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
1964 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
1965 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
1966 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
1967 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
1968
1969       </div>
1970       <div class="tags">
1971
1972
1973         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1974
1975
1976       </div>
1977     </div>
1978     <div class="padding"></div>
1979
1980     <div class="entry">
1981       <div class="title">
1982         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
1983       </div>
1984       <div class="date">
1985         11th June 2013
1986       </div>
1987       <div class="body">
1988         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
1989 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
1990 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
1991 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
1992 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
1993 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
1994 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
1995 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
1996 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
1997 i915 driver used by the
1998 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
1999 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
2000
2001 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
2002 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
2003 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
2004 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
2005 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
2006
2007 <pre>
2008 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
2009 update-initramfs -u -k all
2010 </pre>
2011
2012 <p>Since March 2012 there is
2013 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
2014 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
2015 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
2016 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
2017 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
2018 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
2019 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
2020 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
2021 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
2022 number.</p>
2023
2024 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
2025 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
2026
2027 <p><pre>
2028 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
2029     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
2030     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2031  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
2032  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
2033     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
2034  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
2035     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
2036  Latency: 0
2037  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
2038  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
2039  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
2040  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
2041  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
2042  Capabilities: <access denied>
2043  Kernel driver in use: i915
2044 </pre></p>
2045
2046 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
2047
2048 <p><pre>
2049 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
2050        ...
2051         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
2052         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
2053        ...
2054 }
2055 </pre></p>
2056
2057 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
2058 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
2059 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
2060 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
2061 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
2062 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
2063 yet shown up in
2064 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
2065 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
2066 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
2067 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
2068 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
2069 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
2070
2071 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
2072 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
2073 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
2074 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
2075 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
2076 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
2077 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
2078 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
2079 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
2080 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
2081 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
2082 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
2083
2084 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
2085 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
2086 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
2087 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
2088 backlight.</p>
2089
2090       </div>
2091       <div class="tags">
2092
2093
2094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2095
2096
2097       </div>
2098     </div>
2099     <div class="padding"></div>
2100
2101     <div class="entry">
2102       <div class="title">
2103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
2104       </div>
2105       <div class="date">
2106         27th May 2013
2107       </div>
2108       <div class="body">
2109         <p>Two days ago, I asked
2110 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
2111 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
2112 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
2113 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
2114 and Windows 8.</p>
2115
2116 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
2117 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
2118 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
2119 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
2120 enough to tell.</p>
2121
2122 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
2123 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
2124 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
2125 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
2126 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
2127 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
2128 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
2129 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
2130 to follow.</p>
2131
2132 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
2133 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
2134 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
2135 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
2136 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
2137 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
2138 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
2139 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
2140
2141 <p>I've updated the
2142 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
2143 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
2144 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
2145 machine.</p>
2146
2147 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
2148 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
2149
2150       </div>
2151       <div class="tags">
2152
2153
2154         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2155
2156
2157       </div>
2158     </div>
2159     <div class="padding"></div>
2160
2161     <div class="entry">
2162       <div class="title">
2163         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
2164       </div>
2165       <div class="date">
2166         25th May 2013
2167       </div>
2168       <div class="body">
2169         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
2170 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
2171 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
2172 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
2173 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
2174 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
2175
2176 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
2177 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
2178 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
2179 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
2180 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
2181 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
2182 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
2183 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
2184 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
2185 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
2186
2187 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
2188 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2189 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
2190 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
2191 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
2192 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
2193
2194 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
2195 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
2196 on new Laptops?</p>
2197
2198       </div>
2199       <div class="tags">
2200
2201
2202         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2203
2204
2205       </div>
2206     </div>
2207     <div class="padding"></div>
2208
2209     <div class="entry">
2210       <div class="title">
2211         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
2212       </div>
2213       <div class="date">
2214         17th May 2013
2215       </div>
2216       <div class="body">
2217         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
2218 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
2219 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
2220 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
2221 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
2222 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
2223 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
2224 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
2225 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
2226 donate some money</a>.
2227
2228 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
2229 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
2230 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
2231 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
2232 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
2233
2234 <p>The script,
2235 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
2236 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
2237 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
2238 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
2239
2240 <ol>
2241
2242 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
2243 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
2244 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
2245     our configuration.</li>
2246 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
2247     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
2248     according to the profile specified in the config above,
2249     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
2250 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
2251     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
2252 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
2253
2254 </ol>
2255
2256 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
2257 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
2258 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
2259 the needed packages.</p>
2260
2261 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
2262 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
2263 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
2264 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
2265 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
2266 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
2267
2268 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
2269 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
2270 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
2271
2272 <p><pre>
2273 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
2274 DESKTOP="lxde"
2275 </pre></p>
2276
2277 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
2278 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
2279 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
2280 boot.</p>
2281
2282       </div>
2283       <div class="tags">
2284
2285
2286         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2287
2288
2289       </div>
2290     </div>
2291     <div class="padding"></div>
2292
2293     <div class="entry">
2294       <div class="title">
2295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
2296       </div>
2297       <div class="date">
2298         11th May 2013
2299       </div>
2300       <div class="body">
2301         <P>In January,
2302 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
2303 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
2304 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
2305 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
2306 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
2307 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
2308 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
2309 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
2310 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
2311 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
2312 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
2313 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
2314
2315 <p><table>
2316 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
2317 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
2318 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
2319 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
2320 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
2321 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
2322 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
2323 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
2324 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
2325 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
2326 </table></p>
2327
2328 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
2329 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
2330 available in experimental.</p>
2331
2332 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
2333 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
2334 for LEGO designers.</p>
2335
2336       </div>
2337       <div class="tags">
2338
2339
2340         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2341
2342
2343       </div>
2344     </div>
2345     <div class="padding"></div>
2346
2347     <div class="entry">
2348       <div class="title">
2349         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
2350       </div>
2351       <div class="date">
2352          5th May 2013
2353       </div>
2354       <div class="body">
2355         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
2356 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
2357 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
2358 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
2359 soon.</p>
2360
2361 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
2362 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
2363 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
2364 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
2365 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
2366 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
2367 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
2368 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
2369 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
2370 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
2371 Edu.</a>
2372
2373 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
2374 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
2375 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
2376 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
2377 follow.<p>
2378
2379       </div>
2380       <div class="tags">
2381
2382
2383         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2384
2385
2386       </div>
2387     </div>
2388     <div class="padding"></div>
2389
2390     <div class="entry">
2391       <div class="title">
2392         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
2393       </div>
2394       <div class="date">
2395          3rd April 2013
2396       </div>
2397       <div class="body">
2398         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
2399 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
2400 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
2401 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
2402
2403 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
2404 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
2405 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
2406 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
2407 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
2408 BTS. :)</p>
2409
2410       </div>
2411       <div class="tags">
2412
2413
2414         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2415
2416
2417       </div>
2418     </div>
2419     <div class="padding"></div>
2420
2421     <div class="entry">
2422       <div class="title">
2423         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
2424       </div>
2425       <div class="date">
2426          2nd February 2013
2427       </div>
2428       <div class="body">
2429         <p>My
2430 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
2431 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
2432 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
2433 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
2434 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
2435 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
2436 version too.</p>
2437
2438 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
2439 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
2440 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
2441 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
2442 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
2443 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
2444 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
2445 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
2446
2447 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
2448 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
2449 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
2450 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
2451 it. :)</p>
2452
2453 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2454 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2455 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2456
2457       </div>
2458       <div class="tags">
2459
2460
2461         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2462
2463
2464       </div>
2465     </div>
2466     <div class="padding"></div>
2467
2468     <div class="entry">
2469       <div class="title">
2470         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
2471       </div>
2472       <div class="date">
2473         22nd January 2013
2474       </div>
2475       <div class="body">
2476         <p>Yesterday, I
2477 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
2478 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
2479 pluggable hardware devices, which I
2480 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
2481 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
2482 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
2483 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
2484 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
2485 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
2486 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
2487 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
2488 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
2489 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
2490
2491 <pre>
2492 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
2493 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
2494 </pre>
2495
2496 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
2497 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
2498 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
2499 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
2500
2501 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
2502 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
2503 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
2504 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
2505 word.</p>
2506
2507 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
2508 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
2509 process.</p>
2510
2511 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
2512 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
2513
2514       </div>
2515       <div class="tags">
2516
2517
2518         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2519
2520
2521       </div>
2522     </div>
2523     <div class="padding"></div>
2524
2525     <div class="entry">
2526       <div class="title">
2527         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
2528       </div>
2529       <div class="date">
2530         21st January 2013
2531       </div>
2532       <div class="body">
2533         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
2534 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
2535 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
2536 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
2537 it, fetch the
2538 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
2539 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
2540 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
2541 autostart script.</p>
2542
2543 <p>The design is simple:</p>
2544
2545 <ul>
2546
2547 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
2548 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
2549
2550 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
2551 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
2552 initially did.</li>
2553
2554 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
2555 the APT database, a database
2556 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
2557 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
2558
2559 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
2560 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
2561 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
2562 package or packages.</li>
2563
2564 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
2565 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
2566
2567 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
2568 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
2569
2570 </ul>
2571
2572 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
2573 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
2574 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
2575 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
2576
2577 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
2578 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
2579 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
2580 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
2581 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
2582
2583 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
2584 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
2585 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
2586 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
2587 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
2588 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
2589 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
2590 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
2591
2592 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
2593 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
2594 '<tt>svn checkout
2595 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
2596 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
2597 devscripts package.</p>
2598
2599 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
2600 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
2601 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
2602 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
2603 instructions</a> for details.</p>
2604
2605       </div>
2606       <div class="tags">
2607
2608
2609         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2610
2611
2612       </div>
2613     </div>
2614     <div class="padding"></div>
2615
2616     <div class="entry">
2617       <div class="title">
2618         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
2619       </div>
2620       <div class="date">
2621         19th January 2013
2622       </div>
2623       <div class="body">
2624         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
2625 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
2626 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
2627 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
2628 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
2629 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
2630 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
2631 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
2632 not a durable solution.
2633
2634 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
2635 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
2636
2637 <ul>
2638
2639 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
2640   than A4).</li>
2641 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
2642 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
2643 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
2644 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
2645 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
2646 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
2647 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
2648 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
2649 size).</li>
2650 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
2651   X.org packages.</li>
2652 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
2653   the time).
2654
2655 </ul>
2656
2657 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
2658 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
2659 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
2660 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
2661 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
2662 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
2663 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
2664 still be useful.</p>
2665
2666 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
2667 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
2668 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
2669 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
2670 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
2671 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
2672
2673       </div>
2674       <div class="tags">
2675
2676
2677         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2678
2679
2680       </div>
2681     </div>
2682     <div class="padding"></div>
2683
2684     <div class="entry">
2685       <div class="title">
2686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
2687       </div>
2688       <div class="date">
2689         18th January 2013
2690       </div>
2691       <div class="body">
2692         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
2693 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
2694 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
2695 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
2696 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
2697 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
2698 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
2699
2700 <pre>
2701 #!/usr/bin/python
2702 import sys
2703 import apt
2704 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
2705     cache = apt.Cache()
2706     cache.open(None)
2707     thepkgs = []
2708     for pkg in cache:
2709         version = pkg.candidate
2710         if version is None:
2711             version = pkg.installed
2712         if version is None:
2713             continue
2714         record = version.record
2715         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
2716             continue
2717         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
2718         for t in mime_types:
2719             t = t.rstrip().strip()
2720             if t == mimetype:
2721                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
2722     return thepkgs
2723 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
2724 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
2725     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
2726 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
2727 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
2728     print "  %s" %pkg
2729 </pre>
2730
2731 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
2732
2733 <pre>
2734 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
2735 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
2736   gecko-mediaplayer
2737 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
2738 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
2739   browser-plugin-gnash
2740 %
2741 </pre>
2742
2743 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
2744 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
2745 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
2746 anyone working on adding it?</p>
2747
2748 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
2749 request for icweasel support for this feature is
2750 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
2751 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
2752 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
2753 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
2754
2755       </div>
2756       <div class="tags">
2757
2758
2759         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2760
2761
2762       </div>
2763     </div>
2764     <div class="padding"></div>
2765
2766     <div class="entry">
2767       <div class="title">
2768         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
2769       </div>
2770       <div class="date">
2771         16th January 2013
2772       </div>
2773       <div class="body">
2774         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
2775 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
2776 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
2777 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
2778 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
2779 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
2780 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
2781 downloaded by the browser.</p>
2782
2783 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
2784 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
2785 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
2786 can be found on the
2787 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
2788 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
2789 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
2790 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
2791 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
2792
2793 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
2794
2795 <pre>
2796   count MIME type
2797   ----- -----------------------
2798      32 text/plain
2799      30 audio/mpeg
2800      29 image/png
2801      28 image/jpeg
2802      27 application/ogg
2803      26 audio/x-mp3
2804      25 image/tiff
2805      25 image/gif
2806      22 image/bmp
2807      22 audio/x-wav
2808      20 audio/x-flac
2809      19 audio/x-mpegurl
2810      18 video/x-ms-asf
2811      18 audio/x-musepack
2812      18 audio/x-mpeg
2813      18 application/x-ogg
2814      17 video/mpeg
2815      17 audio/x-scpls
2816      17 audio/ogg
2817      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2818 </pre>
2819
2820 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
2821
2822 <pre>
2823   count MIME type
2824   ----- -----------------------
2825      33 text/plain
2826      32 image/png
2827      32 image/jpeg
2828      29 audio/mpeg
2829      27 image/gif
2830      26 image/tiff
2831      26 application/ogg
2832      25 audio/x-mp3
2833      22 image/bmp
2834      21 audio/x-wav
2835      19 audio/x-mpegurl
2836      19 audio/x-mpeg
2837      18 video/mpeg
2838      18 audio/x-scpls
2839      18 audio/x-flac
2840      18 application/x-ogg
2841      17 video/x-ms-asf
2842      17 text/html
2843      17 audio/x-musepack
2844      16 image/x-xbitmap
2845 </pre>
2846
2847 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
2848
2849 <pre>
2850   count MIME type
2851   ----- -----------------------
2852      31 text/plain
2853      31 image/png
2854      31 image/jpeg
2855      29 audio/mpeg
2856      28 application/ogg
2857      27 image/gif
2858      26 image/tiff
2859      26 audio/x-mp3
2860      23 audio/x-wav
2861      22 image/bmp
2862      21 audio/x-flac
2863      20 audio/x-mpegurl
2864      19 audio/x-mpeg
2865      18 video/x-ms-asf
2866      18 video/mpeg
2867      18 audio/x-scpls
2868      18 application/x-ogg
2869      17 audio/x-musepack
2870      16 video/x-ms-wmv
2871      16 video/x-msvideo
2872 </pre>
2873
2874 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
2875 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
2876 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
2877 issues.</p>
2878
2879 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
2880 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
2881
2882       </div>
2883       <div class="tags">
2884
2885
2886         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2887
2888
2889       </div>
2890     </div>
2891     <div class="padding"></div>
2892
2893     <div class="entry">
2894       <div class="title">
2895         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
2896       </div>
2897       <div class="date">
2898         15th January 2013
2899       </div>
2900       <div class="body">
2901         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
2902 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
2903 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
2904 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
2905 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
2906 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
2907 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
2908 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
2909 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
2910 packages.</p>
2911
2912 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
2913 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
2914 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
2915 modalias.</p>
2916
2917 <p><blockquote>
2918 Package: package-name
2919 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
2920 </blockquote></p>
2921
2922 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
2923 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
2924
2925 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
2926 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
2927
2928 <p><blockquote>
2929 Package: cheese
2930 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
2931 </blockquote></p>
2932
2933 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
2934 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
2935
2936 <p><blockquote>
2937 Package: pcmciautils
2938 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
2939 </blockquote></p>
2940
2941 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
2942 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
2943
2944 <p><blockquote>
2945 Package: colorhug-client
2946 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
2947 </blockquote></p>
2948
2949 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
2950 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
2951 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
2952
2953 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
2954 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
2955 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
2956 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
2957 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
2958 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
2959 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
2960 Raring.</p>
2961
2962 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
2963 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
2964 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
2965 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
2966 try the
2967 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
2968 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
2969 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
2970 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
2971
2972 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
2973 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
2974
2975 <p><blockquote>
2976 % ./hw-support-lookup
2977 <br>yubikey-personalization
2978 <br>%
2979 </blockquote></p>
2980
2981 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
2982 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
2983
2984 <p><blockquote>
2985 % ./hw-support-lookup
2986 <br>pcmciautils
2987 <br>%
2988 </blockquote></p>
2989
2990 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
2991 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
2992 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
2993
2994 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
2995 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
2996 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
2997 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
2998 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
2999 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
3000 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
3001 see if it work.</p>
3002
3003 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3004 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3005 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3006 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3007
3008       </div>
3009       <div class="tags">
3010
3011
3012         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3013
3014
3015       </div>
3016     </div>
3017     <div class="padding"></div>
3018
3019     <div class="entry">
3020       <div class="title">
3021         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
3022       </div>
3023       <div class="date">
3024         14th January 2013
3025       </div>
3026       <div class="body">
3027         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
3028 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
3029 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
3030 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
3031 in
3032 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3033 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
3034
3035 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
3036
3037 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
3038 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
3039 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
3040 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
3041 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
3042 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
3043
3044 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
3045 this shell script:</p>
3046
3047 <pre>
3048 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
3049 </pre>
3050
3051 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
3052 using modinfo:</p>
3053
3054 <pre>
3055 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
3056 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
3057 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
3058 %
3059 </pre>
3060
3061 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
3062
3063 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
3064 Bridge memory controller:</p>
3065
3066 <p><blockquote>
3067 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
3068 </blockquote></p>
3069
3070 <p>This represent these values:</p>
3071
3072 <pre>
3073  v   00008086  (vendor)
3074  d   00002770  (device)
3075  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
3076  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
3077  bc  06        (bus class)
3078  sc  00        (bus subclass)
3079  i   00        (interface)
3080 </pre>
3081
3082 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
3083 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
3084 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
3085 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
3086
3087 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
3088 means.</p>
3089
3090 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
3091
3092 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
3093 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
3094
3095 <p><blockquote>
3096 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
3097 </blockquote></p>
3098
3099 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
3100
3101 <pre>
3102  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
3103  p    0001  (device product)
3104  d    0206  (bcddevice)
3105  dc     09  (device class)
3106  dsc    00  (device subclass)
3107  dp     00  (device protocol)
3108  ic     09  (interface class)
3109  isc    00  (interface subclass)
3110  ip     00  (interface protocol)
3111 </pre>
3112
3113 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
3114 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
3115 these alias entries show up:</p>
3116
3117 <p><blockquote>
3118 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
3119 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
3120 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
3121 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
3122 </blockquote></p>
3123
3124 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
3125 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
3126 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
3127
3128 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
3129
3130 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
3131 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
3132
3133 <p><blockquote>
3134 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3135 </blockquote></p>
3136
3137 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
3138
3139 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
3140
3141 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
3142 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
3143 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
3144
3145 <p><blockquote>
3146 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
3147 </blockquote></p>
3148
3149 <p>The values present are</p>
3150
3151 <pre>
3152  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
3153  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
3154  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
3155  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
3156  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
3157  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
3158  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
3159  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
3160  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
3161  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
3162  ct   10             (chassis type)
3163  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
3164 </pre>
3165
3166 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
3167 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
3168
3169 <pre>
3170   3 Desktop
3171   4 Low Profile Desktop
3172   5 Pizza Box
3173   6 Mini Tower
3174   7 Tower
3175   8 Portable
3176   9 Laptop
3177  10 Notebook
3178  11 Hand Held
3179  12 Docking Station
3180  13 All In One
3181  14 Sub Notebook
3182  15 Space-saving
3183  16 Lunch Box
3184  17 Main Server Chassis
3185  18 Expansion Chassis
3186  19 Sub Chassis
3187  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
3188  21 Peripheral Chassis
3189  22 RAID Chassis
3190  23 Rack Mount Chassis
3191  24 Sealed-case PC
3192  25 Multi-system
3193  26 CompactPCI
3194  27 AdvancedTCA
3195  28 Blade
3196  29 Blade Enclosing
3197 </pre>
3198
3199 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
3200 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
3201 claim it is a desktop.</p>
3202
3203 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
3204
3205 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
3206 test machine:</p>
3207
3208 <p><blockquote>
3209 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
3210 </blockquote></p>
3211
3212 <p>The values present are</p>
3213
3214 <pre>
3215   ty  01  (type)
3216   pr  00  (prototype)
3217   id  00  (id)
3218   ex  00  (extra)
3219 </pre>
3220
3221 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
3222 the valid values are.</p>
3223
3224 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
3225
3226 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
3227 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
3228 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
3229 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
3230 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
3231 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
3232 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
3233
3234 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
3235
3236 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
3237 one can use the following shell script:</p>
3238
3239 <pre>
3240   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
3241     echo "$id" ; \
3242     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
3243   done
3244 </pre>
3245
3246 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
3247 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
3248
3249 <pre>
3250   acpi:ACPI0003:
3251     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
3252   acpi:device:
3253   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
3254   acpi:IBM0068:
3255     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
3256     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
3257     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
3258     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
3259   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3260     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
3261     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
3262     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
3263   [...]
3264 </pre>
3265
3266 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3267 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3268 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3269 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3270
3271 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
3272 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
3273 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
3274
3275       </div>
3276       <div class="tags">
3277
3278
3279         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3280
3281
3282       </div>
3283     </div>
3284     <div class="padding"></div>
3285
3286     <div class="entry">
3287       <div class="title">
3288         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
3289       </div>
3290       <div class="date">
3291         10th January 2013
3292       </div>
3293       <div class="body">
3294         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
3295 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
3296 Launcher and updated the Debian package
3297 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
3298 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
3299 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
3300 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
3301 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
3302 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
3303 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
3304 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
3305 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
3306 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
3307 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
3308 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
3309 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
3310 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
3311 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
3312
3313       </div>
3314       <div class="tags">
3315
3316
3317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3318
3319
3320       </div>
3321     </div>
3322     <div class="padding"></div>
3323
3324     <div class="entry">
3325       <div class="title">
3326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
3327       </div>
3328       <div class="date">
3329          9th January 2013
3330       </div>
3331       <div class="body">
3332         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
3333 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
3334 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
3335 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
3336 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
3337 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
3338 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
3339 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
3340 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
3341 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
3342 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
3343
3344 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
3345 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
3346 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
3347 simple:
3348
3349 <ul>
3350
3351 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
3352   starting when a user log in.</li>
3353
3354 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
3355   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
3356
3357 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
3358   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
3359   packages.</li>
3360
3361 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
3362   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
3363
3364 </ul>
3365
3366 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
3367 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
3368 discover database to find packages and
3369 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
3370 packages.</p>
3371
3372 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
3373 draft package is now checked into
3374 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3375 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
3376 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
3377 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
3378 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
3379 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
3380 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
3381 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
3382 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
3383 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
3384 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
3385 because of the freeze).</p>
3386
3387 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
3388 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
3389 inserted):</p>
3390
3391 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
3392
3393 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
3394 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
3395 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
3396
3397 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
3398 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
3399 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
3400 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
3401 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
3402 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
3403 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
3404
3405 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
3406 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
3407 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
3408 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
3409 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
3410 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
3411 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
3412 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
3413 not be installed?</p>
3414
3415 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
3416 please send me an email. :)</p>
3417
3418       </div>
3419       <div class="tags">
3420
3421
3422         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3423
3424
3425       </div>
3426     </div>
3427     <div class="padding"></div>
3428
3429     <div class="entry">
3430       <div class="title">
3431         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
3432       </div>
3433       <div class="date">
3434          2nd January 2013
3435       </div>
3436       <div class="body">
3437         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
3438 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
3439 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
3440 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
3441 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
3442 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
3443 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
3444 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
3445 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
3446 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
3447
3448 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
3449 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
3450 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
3451
3452       </div>
3453       <div class="tags">
3454
3455
3456         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
3457
3458
3459       </div>
3460     </div>
3461     <div class="padding"></div>
3462
3463     <div class="entry">
3464       <div class="title">
3465         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
3466       </div>
3467       <div class="date">
3468         25th December 2012
3469       </div>
3470       <div class="body">
3471         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
3472 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
3473
3474 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
3475 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
3476 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
3477 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
3478 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
3479 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
3480 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
3481 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
3482 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
3483 name.</p>
3484
3485 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
3486 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
3487 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
3488
3489 <blockquote><pre>
3490 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
3491 cd bitcoin
3492 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
3493 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
3494 </pre></blockquote>
3495
3496 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
3497 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
3498 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
3499 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
3500 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
3501 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
3502 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
3503 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
3504 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
3505
3506 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3507 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3508 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3509
3510       </div>
3511       <div class="tags">
3512
3513
3514         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3515
3516
3517       </div>
3518     </div>
3519     <div class="padding"></div>
3520
3521     <div class="entry">
3522       <div class="title">
3523         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
3524       </div>
3525       <div class="date">
3526         21st December 2012
3527       </div>
3528       <div class="body">
3529         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
3530 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
3531 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
3532 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
3533 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
3534 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
3535 is now maintained by a
3536 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
3537 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
3538 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
3539 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
3540 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
3541 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
3542 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
3543 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
3544 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
3545 Corallo in a
3546 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
3547 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
3548 Debian package.</p>
3549
3550 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
3551 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
3552 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
3553 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
3554 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
3555 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
3556 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
3557 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
3558 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
3559 new version to unstable.
3560
3561 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
3562 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
3563 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
3564 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
3565 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
3566 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
3567 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
3568 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
3569 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
3570 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
3571 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
3572 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
3573 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
3574 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
3575 have not tested them.</p>
3576
3577 <p>My
3578 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
3579 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
3580 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
3581 years ago, as can be
3582 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
3583 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
3584 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
3585 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
3586 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
3587 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
3588 the same address as last time,
3589 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3590
3591       </div>
3592       <div class="tags">
3593
3594
3595         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3596
3597
3598       </div>
3599     </div>
3600     <div class="padding"></div>
3601
3602     <div class="entry">
3603       <div class="title">
3604         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
3605       </div>
3606       <div class="date">
3607          7th September 2012
3608       </div>
3609       <div class="body">
3610         <p>As I
3611 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
3612 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
3613 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
3614 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
3615 repository for the project</a>.</p>
3616
3617 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
3618 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
3619 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
3620 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
3621
3622 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
3623 PostScript formats at
3624 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
3625 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
3626
3627       </div>
3628       <div class="tags">
3629
3630
3631         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3632
3633
3634       </div>
3635     </div>
3636     <div class="padding"></div>
3637
3638     <div class="entry">
3639       <div class="title">
3640         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
3641       </div>
3642       <div class="date">
3643         16th August 2012
3644       </div>
3645       <div class="body">
3646         <p>I dag fyller
3647 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
3648 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
3649 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
3650
3651       </div>
3652       <div class="tags">
3653
3654
3655         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
3656
3657
3658       </div>
3659     </div>
3660     <div class="padding"></div>
3661
3662     <div class="entry">
3663       <div class="title">
3664         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
3665       </div>
3666       <div class="date">
3667         24th June 2012
3668       </div>
3669       <div class="body">
3670         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
3671 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
3672 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
3673 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
3674 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
3675 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
3676 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
3677 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
3678 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
3679 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
3680 missing in my book.</p>
3681
3682 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
3683 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
3684 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
3685 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
3686 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
3687 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
3688 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
3689
3690       </div>
3691       <div class="tags">
3692
3693
3694         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3695
3696
3697       </div>
3698     </div>
3699     <div class="padding"></div>
3700
3701     <div class="entry">
3702       <div class="title">
3703         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
3704       </div>
3705       <div class="date">
3706         21st November 2011
3707       </div>
3708       <div class="body">
3709         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
3710 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
3711 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
3712 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
3713 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
3714 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
3715 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
3716 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
3717 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
3718 the tools to do so.</p>
3719
3720 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
3721 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
3722 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
3723 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
3724
3725 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
3726 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
3727 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
3728 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
3729 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
3730 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
3731 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
3732 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
3733
3734 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
3735 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
3736 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
3737
3738 <p><pre>
3739 #!/usr/bin/perl
3740 use strict;
3741 use warnings;
3742 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
3743 BEGIN {
3744     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
3745     my %rhelmodules = (
3746         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
3747         );
3748     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
3749         eval "use $module;";
3750         if ($@) {
3751             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
3752             system("yum install -y $pkg");
3753             eval "use $module;";
3754         }
3755     }
3756 }
3757 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
3758
3759 upgrade_dell();
3760
3761 exit 0;
3762
3763 sub run_firmware_script {
3764     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
3765     unless ($script) {
3766         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
3767         exit 1
3768     }
3769     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
3770
3771     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
3772         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
3773     } else {
3774         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
3775     }
3776 }
3777
3778 sub run_firmware_scripts {
3779     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
3780     # Run firmware packages
3781     for my $dir (@dirs) {
3782         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
3783         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
3784         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
3785             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
3786             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
3787         }
3788         closedir $dh;
3789     }
3790 }
3791
3792 sub download {
3793     my $url = shift;
3794     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
3795     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
3796 }
3797
3798 sub upgrade_dell {
3799     my @dirs;
3800     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3801     chomp $product;
3802
3803     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
3804
3805         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
3806         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
3807
3808         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
3809             CLEANUP => 1
3810             );
3811         chdir($tmpdir);
3812         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
3813         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
3814         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
3815         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
3816         my $fwopts = "-q";
3817         if (@paths) {
3818             for my $url (@paths) {
3819                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
3820             }
3821             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
3822         } else {
3823             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3824             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3825         }
3826         chdir('/');
3827     } else {
3828         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
3829         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
3830     }
3831 }
3832
3833 sub fetch_dell_fw {
3834     my $path = shift;
3835     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
3836     download($url);
3837 }
3838
3839 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
3840 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
3841 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
3842 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
3843     my $filename = shift;
3844
3845     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
3846     chomp $product;
3847     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
3848
3849     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
3850
3851     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
3852     my @paths;
3853     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
3854         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
3855         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
3856         my $oscode;
3857         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
3858             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
3859         } else {
3860             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
3861         }
3862         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
3863         {
3864             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
3865         }
3866     }
3867     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
3868         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
3869
3870         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
3871         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
3872
3873         my $cpath = $component->{path};
3874         for my $path (@paths) {
3875             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
3876                 push(@paths, $cpath);
3877             }
3878         }
3879     }
3880     return @paths;
3881 }
3882 </pre>
3883
3884 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
3885 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
3886 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
3887 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
3888 outdated.</p>
3889
3890       </div>
3891       <div class="tags">
3892
3893
3894         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3895
3896
3897       </div>
3898     </div>
3899     <div class="padding"></div>
3900
3901     <div class="entry">
3902       <div class="title">
3903         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
3904       </div>
3905       <div class="date">
3906          4th August 2011
3907       </div>
3908       <div class="body">
3909         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
3910 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
3911 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
3912 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
3913 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
3914 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
3915 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
3916 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
3917 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
3918
3919 <p><blockquote>
3920 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
3921 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
3922 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
3923 </blockquote></p>
3924
3925 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
3926 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
3927 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
3928 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
3929 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
3930 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
3931 hard to explain.</p>
3932
3933 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
3934 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
3935 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
3936 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
3937 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
3938 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
3939 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
3940 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
3941 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
3942 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
3943 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
3944 mode).</p>
3945
3946 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
3947 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
3948 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
3949 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
3950 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
3951 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
3952 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
3953 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
3954 after visiting single user mode.</p>
3955
3956 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
3957 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
3958 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
3959 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
3960 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
3961 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
3962 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
3963 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
3964
3965 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
3966 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
3967 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
3968
3969       </div>
3970       <div class="tags">
3971
3972
3973         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3974
3975
3976       </div>
3977     </div>
3978     <div class="padding"></div>
3979
3980     <div class="entry">
3981       <div class="title">
3982         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
3983       </div>
3984       <div class="date">
3985         30th July 2011
3986       </div>
3987       <div class="body">
3988         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
3989 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
3990 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
3991 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
3992 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
3993 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
3994 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
3995 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
3996 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
3997 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
3998 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
3999 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4000 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4001
4002 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4003 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4004 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4005 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4006 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4007 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4008 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4009 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4010 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4011
4012 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4013 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4014 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4015 is presented.</p>
4016
4017 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4018 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4019 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4020 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4021 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4022 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4023 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4024 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4025 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4026 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4027 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4028 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4029 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4030 find time to push this forward.</p>
4031
4032       </div>
4033       <div class="tags">
4034
4035
4036         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4037
4038
4039       </div>
4040     </div>
4041     <div class="padding"></div>
4042
4043     <div class="entry">
4044       <div class="title">
4045         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
4046       </div>
4047       <div class="date">
4048         29th July 2011
4049       </div>
4050       <div class="body">
4051         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4052 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4053 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4054 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4055 issues.</p>
4056
4057 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4058 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4059 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4060
4061 <ol>
4062
4063 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4064 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4065 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4066 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4067 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4068 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4069 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4070 Debian.</li>
4071
4072 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4073 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4074 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4075 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4076 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4077 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4078 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4079 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
4080 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
4081 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
4082 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
4083 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
4084 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
4085
4086 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
4087 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
4088 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
4089 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
4090 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
4091 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
4092 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
4093 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
4094 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
4095 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
4096
4097 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
4098 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
4099 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
4100 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
4101 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
4102 latter behaviour.</li>
4103
4104 </ol>
4105
4106 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
4107 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
4108 it do not matter much.</p>
4109
4110 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
4111 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
4112 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
4113
4114       </div>
4115       <div class="tags">
4116
4117
4118         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4119
4120
4121       </div>
4122     </div>
4123     <div class="padding"></div>
4124
4125     <div class="entry">
4126       <div class="title">
4127         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
4128       </div>
4129       <div class="date">
4130         26th July 2011
4131       </div>
4132       <div class="body">
4133         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
4134 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
4135 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
4136 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
4137 security support for a few years.</p>
4138
4139 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
4140 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
4141 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
4142 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
4143 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
4144 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
4145 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
4146 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
4147 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
4148 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
4149 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
4150 easier in the future.</p>
4151
4152 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
4153 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
4154 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
4155 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
4156 do not have time for.</p>
4157
4158       </div>
4159       <div class="tags">
4160
4161
4162         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
4163
4164
4165       </div>
4166     </div>
4167     <div class="padding"></div>
4168
4169     <div class="entry">
4170       <div class="title">
4171         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
4172       </div>
4173       <div class="date">
4174          3rd April 2011
4175       </div>
4176       <div class="body">
4177         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
4178 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
4179 update in English.</p>
4180
4181 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
4182 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
4183 of the British service
4184 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
4185 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
4186 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
4187 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
4188 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
4189 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
4190 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
4191 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
4192 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
4193 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
4194 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
4195 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
4196 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
4197
4198 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
4199 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
4200 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
4201 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
4202 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
4203 public infrastructure.</p>
4204
4205 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
4206 such service?</p>
4207
4208       </div>
4209       <div class="tags">
4210
4211
4212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
4213
4214
4215       </div>
4216     </div>
4217     <div class="padding"></div>
4218
4219     <div class="entry">
4220       <div class="title">
4221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
4222       </div>
4223       <div class="date">
4224         28th January 2011
4225       </div>
4226       <div class="body">
4227         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
4228 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
4229 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
4230 available on the Internet, and check our locally
4231 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
4232 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
4233 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
4234 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
4235 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
4236 out which security holes were present in our free software
4237 collection.</p>
4238
4239 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
4240 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
4241 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
4242 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
4243 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
4244 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
4245 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
4246 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
4247 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
4248 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
4249 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
4250 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
4251 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
4252 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
4253 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
4254 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
4255
4256 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
4257 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
4258 check out, one could look up
4259 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?cpe=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Agnu%3Agzip:1.3.3">cpe:/a:gnu:gzip:1.3.3
4260 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
4261 The most recent one is
4262 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
4263 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
4264 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
4265
4266 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
4267 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
4268 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
4269 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
4270 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
4271 security issues out.</p>
4272
4273 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
4274 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
4275 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
4276 RHEL is providing
4277 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
4278 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
4279 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
4280
4281 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
4282 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
4283 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
4284 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
4285 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
4286 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
4287 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
4288 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
4289 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
4290 established soon.</p>
4291
4292 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
4293 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
4294 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
4295 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
4296 for their packages.</p>
4297
4298       </div>
4299       <div class="tags">
4300
4301
4302         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4303
4304
4305       </div>
4306     </div>
4307     <div class="padding"></div>
4308
4309     <div class="entry">
4310       <div class="title">
4311         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
4312       </div>
4313       <div class="date">
4314         23rd January 2011
4315       </div>
4316       <div class="body">
4317         <p>In the
4318 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
4319 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
4320 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
4321 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
4322 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
4323 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
4324 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
4325 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
4326 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
4327 one of my machines like this:</p>
4328
4329 <pre>
4330 loaded modules:
4331 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
4332 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
4333 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
4334 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
4335 10de:03ec pata_amd
4336 10de:03f6 sata_nv
4337 1022:1103 k8temp
4338 109e:036e bttv
4339 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
4340 11ab:4364 sky2
4341 </pre>
4342
4343 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
4344 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
4345
4346 <pre>
4347 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
4348     echo loaded pci modules:
4349     (
4350         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
4351         for address in * ; do
4352             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4353                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4354                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4355                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4356                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
4357                     echo "$id $module"
4358                 fi
4359             fi
4360         done
4361     )
4362     echo
4363 fi
4364 </pre>
4365
4366 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
4367 mappings:</p>
4368
4369 <pre>
4370 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
4371     echo loaded usb modules:
4372     (
4373         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
4374         for address in * ; do
4375             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4376                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4377                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4378                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4379                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
4380                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
4381                         echo "$id $module"
4382                     fi
4383                 fi
4384             fi
4385         done
4386     )
4387     echo
4388 fi
4389 </pre>
4390
4391 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
4392 well.</p>
4393
4394       </div>
4395       <div class="tags">
4396
4397
4398         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4399
4400
4401       </div>
4402     </div>
4403     <div class="padding"></div>
4404
4405     <div class="entry">
4406       <div class="title">
4407         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
4408       </div>
4409       <div class="date">
4410         22nd December 2010
4411       </div>
4412       <div class="body">
4413         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
4414 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
4415 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
4416 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
4417 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
4418 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
4419 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
4420 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
4421 university.</p>
4422
4423 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
4424 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
4425 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
4426 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
4427 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
4428 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
4429 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
4430 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
4431
4432 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
4433 I perform on a new model.</p>
4434
4435 <ul>
4436
4437 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
4438 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
4439 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
4440
4441 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
4442 installation, X.org is working.</li>
4443
4444 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
4445 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
4446 reported by the program.</li>
4447
4448 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
4449 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
4450 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
4451 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
4452 normally test this by playing
4453 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
4454 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
4455
4456 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
4457 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4458
4459 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
4460 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4461
4462 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
4463 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
4464
4465 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
4466 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
4467 few.</li>
4468
4469 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
4470 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
4471 notice this.</li>
4472
4473 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
4474 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
4475 resume.</li>
4476
4477 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
4478 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
4479 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
4480 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
4481 not.</li>
4482
4483 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
4484 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
4485 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
4486 existence.</li>
4487
4488 </ul>
4489
4490 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
4491 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
4492 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
4493 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
4494 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
4495 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
4496 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
4497 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
4498
4499       </div>
4500       <div class="tags">
4501
4502
4503         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4504
4505
4506       </div>
4507     </div>
4508     <div class="padding"></div>
4509
4510     <div class="entry">
4511       <div class="title">
4512         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
4513       </div>
4514       <div class="date">
4515         11th December 2010
4516       </div>
4517       <div class="body">
4518         <p>As I continue to explore
4519 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
4520 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
4521 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
4522
4523 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
4524 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
4525 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
4526 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
4527 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
4528 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
4529 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
4530 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
4531 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
4532 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
4533 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
4534 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
4535 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
4536 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
4537 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
4538 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
4539 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
4540 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
4541 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
4542 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
4543
4544 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
4545 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
4546 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
4547 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
4548 If the Skolelinux foundation
4549 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
4550 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
4551 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
4552 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
4553 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
4554 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
4555 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
4556 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
4557
4558 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
4559 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
4560 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
4561 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
4562 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
4563 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
4564 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
4565 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
4566 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
4567 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
4568 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
4569 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
4570 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
4571 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
4572 currencies.</p>
4573
4574 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
4575 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
4576 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
4577 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
4578 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
4579 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
4580 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
4581 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
4582 BitCoins.  Check out
4583 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
4584 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
4585 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
4586 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
4587 yet.</p>
4588
4589 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
4590 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
4591 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
4592 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
4593 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
4594
4595       </div>
4596       <div class="tags">
4597
4598
4599         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4600
4601
4602       </div>
4603     </div>
4604     <div class="padding"></div>
4605
4606     <div class="entry">
4607       <div class="title">
4608         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
4609       </div>
4610       <div class="date">
4611         10th December 2010
4612       </div>
4613       <div class="body">
4614         <p>With this weeks lawless
4615 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
4616 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
4617 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
4618 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
4619 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
4620 A blog post from
4621 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
4622 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
4623 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
4624 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
4625 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
4626 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
4627 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
4628
4629 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
4630 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
4631 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
4632 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
4633 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
4634 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
4635 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
4636 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
4637 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
4638 Debian</a> soon.</p>
4639
4640 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
4641 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
4642 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
4643 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
4644 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
4645 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
4646 you can even get
4647 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
4648 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
4649 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
4650 on the current exchange rates.</p>
4651
4652 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
4653 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
4654 donations to the address
4655 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
4656
4657       </div>
4658       <div class="tags">
4659
4660
4661         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4662
4663
4664       </div>
4665     </div>
4666     <div class="padding"></div>
4667
4668     <div class="entry">
4669       <div class="title">
4670         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
4671       </div>
4672       <div class="date">
4673         27th November 2010
4674       </div>
4675       <div class="body">
4676         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
4677 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
4678 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
4679 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
4680 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
4681 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
4682 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
4683 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
4684
4685 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
4686 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
4687 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
4688 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
4689 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
4690 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
4691 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
4692 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
4693 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
4694 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
4695 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
4696
4697 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
4698 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
4699 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
4700 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
4701 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
4702 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
4703 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
4704 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
4705 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
4706 what is going on.</p>
4707
4708       </div>
4709       <div class="tags">
4710
4711
4712         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4713
4714
4715       </div>
4716     </div>
4717     <div class="padding"></div>
4718
4719     <div class="entry">
4720       <div class="title">
4721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
4722       </div>
4723       <div class="date">
4724         22nd November 2010
4725       </div>
4726       <div class="body">
4727         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
4728 upgrade testing of the
4729 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
4730 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
4731 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
4732 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
4733
4734 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
4735
4736 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4737
4738 <blockquote><p>
4739   apache2.2-bin
4740   aptdaemon
4741   baobab
4742   binfmt-support
4743   browser-plugin-gnash
4744   cheese-common
4745   cli-common
4746   cups-pk-helper
4747   dmz-cursor-theme
4748   empathy
4749   empathy-common
4750   freedesktop-sound-theme
4751   freeglut3
4752   gconf-defaults-service
4753   gdm-themes
4754   gedit-plugins
4755   geoclue
4756   geoclue-hostip
4757   geoclue-localnet
4758   geoclue-manual
4759   geoclue-yahoo
4760   gnash
4761   gnash-common
4762   gnome
4763   gnome-backgrounds
4764   gnome-cards-data
4765   gnome-codec-install
4766   gnome-core
4767   gnome-desktop-environment
4768   gnome-disk-utility
4769   gnome-screenshot
4770   gnome-search-tool
4771   gnome-session-canberra
4772   gnome-system-log
4773   gnome-themes-extras
4774   gnome-themes-more
4775   gnome-user-share
4776   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
4777   gstreamer0.10-tools
4778   gtk2-engines
4779   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
4780   gtk2-engines-smooth
4781   hamster-applet
4782   libapache2-mod-dnssd
4783   libapr1
4784   libaprutil1
4785   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
4786   libaprutil1-ldap
4787   libart2.0-cil
4788   libboost-date-time1.42.0
4789   libboost-python1.42.0
4790   libboost-thread1.42.0
4791   libchamplain-0.4-0
4792   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
4793   libcheese-gtk18
4794   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
4795   libcryptui0
4796   libdiscid0
4797   libelf1
4798   libepc-1.0-2
4799   libepc-common
4800   libepc-ui-1.0-2
4801   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
4802   libfreerdp0
4803   libgconf2.0-cil
4804   libgdata-common
4805   libgdata7
4806   libgdu-gtk0
4807   libgee2
4808   libgeoclue0
4809   libgexiv2-0
4810   libgif4
4811   libglade2.0-cil
4812   libglib2.0-cil
4813   libgmime2.4-cil
4814   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
4815   libgnome2.24-cil
4816   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
4817   libgpod-common
4818   libgpod4
4819   libgtk2.0-cil
4820   libgtkglext1
4821   libgtksourceview2.0-common
4822   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
4823   libmono-addins0.2-cil
4824   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
4825   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
4826   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
4827   libmono-posix2.0-cil
4828   libmono-security2.0-cil
4829   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
4830   libmono-system2.0-cil
4831   libmtp8
4832   libmusicbrainz3-6
4833   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
4834   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
4835   libopal3.6.8
4836   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
4837   libpt2.6.7
4838   libpython2.6
4839   librpm1
4840   librpmio1
4841   libsdl1.2debian
4842   libsrtp0
4843   libssh-4
4844   libtelepathy-farsight0
4845   libtelepathy-glib0
4846   libtidy-0.99-0
4847   media-player-info
4848   mesa-utils
4849   mono-2.0-gac
4850   mono-gac
4851   mono-runtime
4852   nautilus-sendto
4853   nautilus-sendto-empathy
4854   p7zip-full
4855   pkg-config
4856   python-aptdaemon
4857   python-aptdaemon-gtk
4858   python-axiom
4859   python-beautifulsoup
4860   python-bugbuddy
4861   python-clientform
4862   python-coherence
4863   python-configobj
4864   python-crypto
4865   python-cupshelpers
4866   python-elementtree
4867   python-epsilon
4868   python-evolution
4869   python-feedparser
4870   python-gdata
4871   python-gdbm
4872   python-gst0.10
4873   python-gtkglext1
4874   python-gtksourceview2
4875   python-httplib2
4876   python-louie
4877   python-mako
4878   python-markupsafe
4879   python-mechanize
4880   python-nevow
4881   python-notify
4882   python-opengl
4883   python-openssl
4884   python-pam
4885   python-pkg-resources
4886   python-pyasn1
4887   python-pysqlite2
4888   python-rdflib
4889   python-serial
4890   python-tagpy
4891   python-twisted-bin
4892   python-twisted-conch
4893   python-twisted-core
4894   python-twisted-web
4895   python-utidylib
4896   python-webkit
4897   python-xdg
4898   python-zope.interface
4899   remmina
4900   remmina-plugin-data
4901   remmina-plugin-rdp
4902   remmina-plugin-vnc
4903   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
4904   rhythmbox-plugins
4905   rpm-common
4906   rpm2cpio
4907   seahorse-plugins
4908   shotwell
4909   software-center
4910   system-config-printer-udev
4911   telepathy-gabble
4912   telepathy-mission-control-5
4913   telepathy-salut
4914   tomboy
4915   totem
4916   totem-coherence
4917   totem-mozilla
4918   totem-plugins
4919   transmission-common
4920   xdg-user-dirs
4921   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
4922   xserver-xephyr
4923 </p></blockquote>
4924
4925 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4926
4927 <blockquote><p>
4928   cheese
4929   ekiga
4930   eog
4931   epiphany-extensions
4932   evolution-exchange
4933   fast-user-switch-applet
4934   file-roller
4935   gcalctool
4936   gconf-editor
4937   gdm
4938   gedit
4939   gedit-common
4940   gnome-games
4941   gnome-games-data
4942   gnome-nettool
4943   gnome-system-tools
4944   gnome-themes
4945   gnuchess
4946   gucharmap
4947   guile-1.8-libs
4948   libavahi-ui0
4949   libdmx1
4950   libgalago3
4951   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
4952   libgtksourceview2.0-0
4953   liblircclient0
4954   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
4955   libspeexdsp1
4956   libsvga1
4957   rhythmbox
4958   seahorse
4959   sound-juicer
4960   system-config-printer
4961   totem-common
4962   transmission-gtk
4963   vinagre
4964   vino
4965 </p></blockquote>
4966
4967 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4968
4969 <blockquote><p>
4970   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
4971 </p></blockquote>
4972
4973 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
4974
4975 <blockquote><p>
4976 [nothing]
4977 </p></blockquote>
4978
4979 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
4980
4981 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
4982
4983 <blockquote><p>
4984   ksmserver
4985 </p></blockquote>
4986
4987 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
4988
4989 <blockquote><p>
4990   kwin
4991   network-manager-kde
4992 </p></blockquote>
4993
4994 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
4995
4996 <blockquote><p>
4997   arts
4998   dolphin
4999   freespacenotifier
5000   google-gadgets-gst
5001   google-gadgets-xul
5002   kappfinder
5003   kcalc
5004   kcharselect
5005   kde-core
5006   kde-plasma-desktop
5007   kde-standard
5008   kde-window-manager
5009   kdeartwork
5010   kdeartwork-emoticons
5011   kdeartwork-style
5012   kdeartwork-theme-icon
5013   kdebase
5014   kdebase-apps
5015   kdebase-workspace
5016   kdebase-workspace-bin
5017   kdebase-workspace-data
5018   kdeeject
5019   kdelibs
5020   kdeplasma-addons
5021   kdeutils
5022   kdewallpapers
5023   kdf
5024   kfloppy
5025   kgpg
5026   khelpcenter4
5027   kinfocenter
5028   konq-plugins-l10n
5029   konqueror-nsplugins
5030   kscreensaver
5031   kscreensaver-xsavers
5032   ktimer
5033   kwrite
5034   libgle3
5035   libkde4-ruby1.8
5036   libkonq5
5037   libkonq5-templates
5038   libnetpbm10
5039   libplasma-ruby
5040   libplasma-ruby1.8
5041   libqt4-ruby1.8
5042   marble-data
5043   marble-plugins
5044   netpbm
5045   nuvola-icon-theme
5046   plasma-dataengines-workspace
5047   plasma-desktop
5048   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
5049   plasma-runners-addons
5050   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
5051   plasma-scriptengine-python
5052   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
5053   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
5054   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
5055   plasma-scriptengines
5056   plasma-wallpapers-addons
5057   plasma-widget-folderview
5058   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5059   ruby
5060   sweeper
5061   update-notifier-kde
5062   xscreensaver-data-extra
5063   xscreensaver-gl
5064   xscreensaver-gl-extra
5065   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5066 </p></blockquote>
5067
5068 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5069
5070 <blockquote><p>
5071   ark
5072   google-gadgets-common
5073   google-gadgets-qt
5074   htdig
5075   kate
5076   kdebase-bin
5077   kdebase-data
5078   kdepasswd
5079   kfind
5080   klipper
5081   konq-plugins
5082   konqueror
5083   ksysguard
5084   ksysguardd
5085   libarchive1
5086   libcln6
5087   libeet1
5088   libeina-svn-06
5089   libggadget-1.0-0b
5090   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
5091   libgps19
5092   libkdecorations4
5093   libkephal4
5094   libkonq4
5095   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
5096   libkscreensaver5
5097   libksgrd4
5098   libksignalplotter4
5099   libkunitconversion4
5100   libkwineffects1a
5101   libmarblewidget4
5102   libntrack-qt4-1
5103   libntrack0
5104   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
5105   libplasmaclock4a
5106   libplasmagenericshell4
5107   libprocesscore4a
5108   libprocessui4a
5109   libqalculate5
5110   libqedje0a
5111   libqtruby4shared2
5112   libqzion0a
5113   libruby1.8
5114   libscim8c2a
5115   libsmokekdecore4-3
5116   libsmokekdeui4-3
5117   libsmokekfile3
5118   libsmokekhtml3
5119   libsmokekio3
5120   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
5121   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
5122   libsmokekparts3
5123   libsmokektexteditor3
5124   libsmokekutils3
5125   libsmokenepomuk3
5126   libsmokephonon3
5127   libsmokeplasma3
5128   libsmokeqtcore4-3
5129   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
5130   libsmokeqtgui4-3
5131   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
5132   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
5133   libsmokeqtscript4-3
5134   libsmokeqtsql4-3
5135   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
5136   libsmokeqttest4-3
5137   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
5138   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
5139   libsmokeqtxml4-3
5140   libsmokesolid3
5141   libsmokesoprano3
5142   libtaskmanager4a
5143   libtidy-0.99-0
5144   libweather-ion4a
5145   libxklavier16
5146   libxxf86misc1
5147   okteta
5148   oxygencursors
5149   plasma-dataengines-addons
5150   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
5151   plasma-widget-lancelot
5152   plasma-widgets-addons
5153   plasma-widgets-workspace
5154   polkit-kde-1
5155   ruby1.8
5156   systemsettings
5157   update-notifier-common
5158 </p></blockquote>
5159
5160 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
5161 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
5162 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
5163 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
5164
5165       </div>
5166       <div class="tags">
5167
5168
5169         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5170
5171
5172       </div>
5173     </div>
5174     <div class="padding"></div>
5175
5176     <div class="entry">
5177       <div class="title">
5178         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
5179       </div>
5180       <div class="date">
5181         22nd November 2010
5182       </div>
5183       <div class="body">
5184         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
5185 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
5186 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
5187 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
5188 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
5189 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
5190 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
5191 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
5192 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
5193
5194 <p>I found
5195 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
5196 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
5197 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
5198 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
5199 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
5200 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
5201
5202 <pre>
5203 #!/bin/sh
5204
5205 # Based on
5206 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
5207
5208 set -e
5209 set -x
5210
5211 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
5212     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
5213     exit 1
5214 else
5215     host="$1"
5216 fi
5217
5218 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
5219     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
5220     exit 1
5221 fi
5222
5223 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
5224 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5225 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5226 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
5227
5228 img=$host.img
5229 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
5230 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
5231
5232 parted $img mklabel msdos
5233 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
5234 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
5235 parted $img set 1 boot on
5236
5237 modprobe dm-mod
5238 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
5239 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
5240
5241 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
5242 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
5243 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
5244
5245 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
5246 losetup -d /dev/loop0
5247 </pre>
5248
5249 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
5250 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
5251
5252 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
5253 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
5254 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
5255 seem to work just fine.</p>
5256
5257       </div>
5258       <div class="tags">
5259
5260
5261         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5262
5263
5264       </div>
5265     </div>
5266     <div class="padding"></div>
5267
5268     <div class="entry">
5269       <div class="title">
5270         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
5271       </div>
5272       <div class="date">
5273         20th November 2010
5274       </div>
5275       <div class="body">
5276         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
5277 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5278 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
5279 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
5280
5281 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
5282 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
5283 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
5284
5285 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5286
5287 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5288
5289 <blockquote><p>
5290   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
5291   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
5292   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
5293   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
5294   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
5295   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
5296   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
5297   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
5298   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
5299   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
5300   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5301   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5302   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
5303   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
5304   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
5305   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
5306   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5307   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
5308   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5309   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
5310   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
5311   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5312   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
5313   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
5314   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
5315   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5316   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5317   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
5318   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5319   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
5320   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
5321   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
5322   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
5323   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
5324   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
5325   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
5326   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
5327   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
5328   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
5329   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
5330   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
5331   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
5332   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
5333   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
5334   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
5335   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
5336   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
5337   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
5338   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
5339   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
5340   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
5341   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
5342   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5343   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
5344   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
5345   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
5346   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
5347   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
5348   zip
5349 </p></blockquote>
5350
5351 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
5352
5353 <blockquote><p>
5354   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
5355   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
5356   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
5357   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
5358   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
5359   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
5360   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
5361   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
5362   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
5363   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
5364   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
5365   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
5366   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
5367   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5368   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5369   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
5370   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5371   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
5372   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
5373   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
5374   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
5375   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
5376   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
5377   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
5378   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
5379   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
5380   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
5381   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
5382   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
5383 </p></blockquote>
5384
5385 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5386
5387 <blockquote><p>
5388   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5389 </p></blockquote>
5390
5391 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5392
5393 <blockquote><p>
5394 [nothing]
5395 </p></blockquote>
5396
5397 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5398
5399 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5400
5401 <blockquote><p>
5402   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
5403   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5404   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
5405   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
5406   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
5407   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
5408   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5409   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
5410   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
5411   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5412   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
5413   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
5414   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
5415   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
5416   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
5417   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
5418   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
5419   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
5420   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
5421   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
5422   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
5423   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
5424   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
5425   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
5426   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
5427   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
5428   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
5429   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
5430   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
5431   ttf-sazanami-gothic
5432 </p></blockquote>
5433
5434 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5435
5436 <blockquote><p>
5437   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
5438   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
5439   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
5440   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
5441   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
5442   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
5443   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
5444   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
5445   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
5446   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
5447   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
5448   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
5449   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
5450   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
5451   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5452   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5453   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
5454   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
5455   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5456   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
5457   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5458   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
5459   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5460   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5461   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
5462   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
5463   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
5464   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
5465   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
5466   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
5467   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
5468   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
5469   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
5470 </p></blockquote>
5471
5472 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5473
5474 <blockquote><p>
5475   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
5476   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
5477   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
5478   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
5479   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5480   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
5481   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5482 </p></blockquote>
5483
5484 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5485
5486 <blockquote><p>
5487   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
5488 </p></blockquote>
5489
5490       </div>
5491       <div class="tags">
5492
5493
5494         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5495
5496
5497       </div>
5498     </div>
5499     <div class="padding"></div>
5500
5501     <div class="entry">
5502       <div class="title">
5503         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
5504       </div>
5505       <div class="date">
5506         20th November 2010
5507       </div>
5508       <div class="body">
5509         <p>Answering
5510 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
5511 call from the Gnash project</a> for
5512 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
5513 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
5514 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
5515 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
5516 releases out more often.</p>
5517
5518 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
5519 I have considered setting up a <a
5520 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
5521 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
5522 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
5523 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
5524 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
5525 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
5526 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
5527 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
5528 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
5529 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
5530 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
5531 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
5532
5533       </div>
5534       <div class="tags">
5535
5536
5537         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5538
5539
5540       </div>
5541     </div>
5542     <div class="padding"></div>
5543
5544     <div class="entry">
5545       <div class="title">
5546         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
5547       </div>
5548       <div class="date">
5549          9th November 2010
5550       </div>
5551       <div class="body">
5552         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
5553
5554 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
5555 3D linked in from
5556 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
5557 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
5558
5559       </div>
5560       <div class="tags">
5561
5562
5563         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5564
5565
5566       </div>
5567     </div>
5568     <div class="padding"></div>
5569
5570     <div class="entry">
5571       <div class="title">
5572         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
5573       </div>
5574       <div class="date">
5575         24th October 2010
5576       </div>
5577       <div class="body">
5578         <p>Some updates.</p>
5579
5580 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
5581 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
5582 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
5583 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
5584 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
5585 :)</p>
5586
5587 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
5588 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
5589 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
5590 It is called
5591 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
5592 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
5593 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
5594 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
5595 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
5596 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
5597
5598 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
5599 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
5600 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
5601 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
5602 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
5603 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
5604 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
5605 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
5606 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
5607 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
5608
5609       </div>
5610       <div class="tags">
5611
5612
5613         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
5614
5615
5616       </div>
5617     </div>
5618     <div class="padding"></div>
5619
5620     <div class="entry">
5621       <div class="title">
5622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
5623       </div>
5624       <div class="date">
5625          4th September 2010
5626       </div>
5627       <div class="body">
5628         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
5629 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
5630 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
5631 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
5632 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
5633 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
5634 installed.</p>
5635
5636 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
5637 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
5638 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
5639 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
5640 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
5641 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
5642 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
5643 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
5644 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
5645
5646 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
5647 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
5648 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
5649 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
5650 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
5651 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
5652 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
5653 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
5654 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
5655 pages they want to visit.</p>
5656
5657 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
5658 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
5659 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
5660 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
5661 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
5662 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
5663 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
5664 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
5665 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
5666 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
5667 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
5668
5669       </div>
5670       <div class="tags">
5671
5672
5673         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5674
5675
5676       </div>
5677     </div>
5678     <div class="padding"></div>
5679
5680     <div class="entry">
5681       <div class="title">
5682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
5683       </div>
5684       <div class="date">
5685         27th July 2010
5686       </div>
5687       <div class="body">
5688         <p>I discovered this while doing
5689 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
5690 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
5691 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
5692 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
5693 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
5694
5695 <p>An example is from todays
5696 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
5697 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
5698 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
5699 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
5700 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
5701 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
5702 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
5703
5704 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
5705
5706 <blockquote><pre>
5707 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
5708  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
5709   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
5710 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
5711  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
5712 </pre></blockquote>
5713
5714 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
5715 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
5716 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
5717 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
5718 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
5719 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
5720 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
5721 of dependency loops.</p>
5722
5723 <p>Thanks to
5724 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
5725 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
5726 dependencies
5727 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
5728 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
5729
5730 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
5731 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
5732 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
5733 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
5734 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
5735 it.</p>
5736
5737       </div>
5738       <div class="tags">
5739
5740
5741         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5742
5743
5744       </div>
5745     </div>
5746     <div class="padding"></div>
5747
5748     <div class="entry">
5749       <div class="title">
5750         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
5751       </div>
5752       <div class="date">
5753         17th July 2010
5754       </div>
5755       <div class="body">
5756         <p>This is a
5757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
5758 on my
5759 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
5760 work</a> on
5761 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
5762 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
5763
5764 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
5765 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
5766 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
5767 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
5768
5769 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
5770 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
5771 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
5772
5773 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
5774
5775 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
5776 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
5777 the web.
5778
5779 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
5780 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
5781 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
5782 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
5783 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
5784 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
5785
5786 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
5787 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
5788 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
5789 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
5790 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
5791 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
5792 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
5793 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
5794 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
5795 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
5796 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
5797 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
5798 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
5799 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
5800 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
5801 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
5802
5803 <blockquote><pre>
5804 ldapsearch -h ldap \
5805   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
5806   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
5807   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
5808   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
5809   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
5810   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
5811
5812 ldapsearch -h ldap \
5813   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
5814   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
5815   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
5816   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
5817   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
5818 </pre></blockquote>
5819
5820 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
5821 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
5822 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
5823 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5824 also exist.</p>
5825
5826 <blockquote><pre>
5827 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5828 objectclass: top
5829 objectclass: dnsdomain
5830 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
5831 dc: tjener
5832 arecord: 10.0.2.2
5833 associateddomain: tjener.intern
5834
5835 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5836 objectclass: top
5837 objectclass: dnsdomain2
5838 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
5839 dc: 2
5840 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
5841 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
5842 </pre></blockquote>
5843
5844 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
5845 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
5846 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
5847 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
5848 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
5849 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
5850 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
5851 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
5852 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
5853 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
5854 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
5855 instead.</p>
5856
5857 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
5858 like this:</p>
5859
5860 <blockquote><pre>
5861 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
5862   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
5863   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
5864   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
5865   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
5866   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
5867
5868 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
5869   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
5870 </pre></blockquote>
5871
5872 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
5873 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
5874 reverse lookups.</p>
5875
5876 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
5877 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
5878 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
5879 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
5880
5881 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
5882 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
5883 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
5884
5885 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
5886 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
5887 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
5888 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
5889 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
5890
5891 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
5892 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
5893 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
5894 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
5895 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
5896
5897 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
5898 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
5899 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
5900 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
5901 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
5902 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
5903
5904 <blockquote><pre>
5905 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
5906     SUP top
5907     AUXILIARY
5908     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
5909           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
5910           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
5911           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
5912           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
5913     ))
5914 </pre></blockquote>
5915
5916 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
5917 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
5918 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
5919 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
5920 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
5921 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
5922
5923 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
5924
5925 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
5926 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
5927 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
5928 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
5929 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
5930
5931 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
5932 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
5933 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
5934 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
5935
5936 <blockquote><pre>
5937 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
5938 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
5939 </pre></blockquote>
5940
5941 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
5942 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
5943 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
5944 search result is this entry:</p>
5945
5946 <blockquote><pre>
5947 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5948 cn: dhcp
5949 objectClass: top
5950 objectClass: dhcpServer
5951 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5952 </pre></blockquote>
5953
5954 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
5955 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
5956 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
5957 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
5958 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
5959 The search result is this entry:</p>
5960
5961 <blockquote><pre>
5962 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5963 cn: DHCP Config
5964 objectClass: top
5965 objectClass: dhcpService
5966 objectClass: dhcpOptions
5967 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5968 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
5969 dhcpStatements: authoritative
5970 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
5971 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
5972 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
5973 </pre></blockquote>
5974
5975 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
5976 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
5977 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
5978 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
5979 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
5980 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
5981 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
5982 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
5983 related computer objects.</p>
5984
5985 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
5986 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
5987 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
5988 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
5989 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
5990 like:</p>
5991
5992 <blockquote><pre>
5993 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5994 cn: hostname
5995 objectClass: top
5996 objectClass: dhcpHost
5997 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
5998 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
5999 </pre></blockquote>
6000
6001 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
6002 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
6003 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
6004 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
6005 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
6006 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
6007 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
6008 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
6009 structural object class.
6010
6011 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
6012
6013 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
6014 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
6015 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
6016 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
6017 in the configuration.</p>
6018
6019 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
6020 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
6021 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
6022 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
6023 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
6024 structure.</p>
6025
6026 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
6027 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
6028
6029 <blockquote><pre>
6030 ou=services
6031   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
6032     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
6033     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6034       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6035         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6036     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6037       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6038         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6039     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
6040       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
6041 </pre></blockquote>
6042
6043 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
6044 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
6045 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
6046 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
6047
6048 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
6049 like this:</p>
6050
6051 <blockquote><pre>
6052 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6053 dc: hostname
6054 objectClass: top
6055 objectClass: dhcpHost
6056 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6057 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
6058 associateddomain: hostname.intern
6059 arecord: 10.11.12.13
6060 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6061 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
6062 </pre></blockquote>
6063
6064 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
6065 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
6066 auxiliary object class.</p>
6067
6068       </div>
6069       <div class="tags">
6070
6071
6072         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6073
6074
6075       </div>
6076     </div>
6077     <div class="padding"></div>
6078
6079     <div class="entry">
6080       <div class="title">
6081         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
6082       </div>
6083       <div class="date">
6084         14th July 2010
6085       </div>
6086       <div class="body">
6087         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
6088 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
6089 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
6090 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
6091 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
6092
6093 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
6094 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
6095
6096 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
6097 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
6098 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
6099 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
6100 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
6101 to a slave DNS server.</p>
6102
6103 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
6104 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
6105 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
6106 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
6107 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
6108 seem to work.</p>
6109
6110 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
6111 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
6112 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
6113 this:</p>
6114
6115 <blockquote><pre>
6116   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6117   cn: hostname
6118   objectClass: dhcphost
6119   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6120   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
6121   associateddomain: hostname.intern
6122   arecord: 10.11.12.13
6123   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6124   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
6125   ldapconfigsound: Y
6126 </pre></blockquote>
6127
6128 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
6129 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
6130 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
6131 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
6132
6133 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
6134 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
6135 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
6136 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
6137 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
6138 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
6139 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
6140 might be a good place to put it.</p>
6141
6142 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6143 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6144
6145       </div>
6146       <div class="tags">
6147
6148
6149         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6150
6151
6152       </div>
6153     </div>
6154     <div class="padding"></div>
6155
6156     <div class="entry">
6157       <div class="title">
6158         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
6159       </div>
6160       <div class="date">
6161         11th July 2010
6162       </div>
6163       <div class="body">
6164         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
6165 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
6166 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
6167 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
6168
6169 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
6170 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
6171 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
6172 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
6173 LTSP clients.</p>
6174
6175 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
6176 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
6177 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
6178
6179 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
6180 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
6181 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
6182
6183 <blockquote><pre>
6184 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
6185 #
6186 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
6187 #
6188 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
6189 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
6190 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
6191 #
6192 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
6193 # existence of attribute names.
6194 #
6195 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
6196 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
6197 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
6198 #
6199 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
6200 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
6201 #
6202 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
6203 #     SUP top
6204 #     AUXILIARY
6205 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
6206
6207 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
6208 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
6209     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
6210     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
6211         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
6212         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
6213             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
6214             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
6215             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
6216             # bass value on to clients
6217             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
6218         done
6219     done
6220 fi
6221 </pre></blockquote>
6222
6223 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
6224 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
6225 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
6226 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
6227 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
6228
6229 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6230 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6231
6232 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
6233 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
6234 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
6235 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
6236 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
6237 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
6238
6239       </div>
6240       <div class="tags">
6241
6242
6243         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6244
6245
6246       </div>
6247     </div>
6248     <div class="padding"></div>
6249
6250     <div class="entry">
6251       <div class="title">
6252         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6253       </div>
6254       <div class="date">
6255          9th July 2010
6256       </div>
6257       <div class="body">
6258         <p>Since
6259 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
6260 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
6261 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
6262 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
6263 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
6264 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
6265 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
6266 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
6267 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
6268 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
6269 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
6270 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
6271 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
6272
6273       </div>
6274       <div class="tags">
6275
6276
6277         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6278
6279
6280       </div>
6281     </div>
6282     <div class="padding"></div>
6283
6284     <div class="entry">
6285       <div class="title">
6286         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
6287       </div>
6288       <div class="date">
6289          3rd July 2010
6290       </div>
6291       <div class="body">
6292         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
6293 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
6294 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
6295 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
6296 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
6297 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
6298 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
6299 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
6300
6301 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
6302 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
6303 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
6304 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
6305 publish the difference.</p>
6306
6307 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6308
6309 <blockquote><p>
6310   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6311   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
6312   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
6313   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6314   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
6315   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
6316   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
6317   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
6318 </p></blockquote>
6319
6320 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6321
6322 <blockquote><p>
6323   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
6324   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
6325   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
6326   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
6327   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
6328   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
6329   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6330   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6331   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6332   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
6333   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
6334   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
6335   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
6336   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
6337   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
6338   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6339   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
6340   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
6341   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
6342   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
6343 </p></blockquote>
6344
6345 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6346
6347 <blockquote><p>
6348   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
6349   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
6350   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6351   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6352   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
6353   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
6354   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
6355   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6356   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6357   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6358   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6359   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
6360   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
6361   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
6362   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
6363   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
6364   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
6365   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
6366   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
6367   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
6368   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
6369 </p></blockquote>
6370
6371 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6372
6373 <blockquote><p>
6374   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
6375   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
6376   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
6377 </p></blockquote>
6378
6379 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
6380 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
6381 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
6382 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
6383 the difference somewhat.
6384
6385       </div>
6386       <div class="tags">
6387
6388
6389         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6390
6391
6392       </div>
6393     </div>
6394     <div class="padding"></div>
6395
6396     <div class="entry">
6397       <div class="title">
6398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6399       </div>
6400       <div class="date">
6401         28th June 2010
6402       </div>
6403       <div class="body">
6404         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
6405 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
6406 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
6407 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
6408 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
6409 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
6410 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
6411 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
6412 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
6413 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
6414
6415 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
6416 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
6417 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
6418 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
6419 released.</p>
6420
6421 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
6422 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
6423 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
6424 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
6425
6426 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
6427 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6428
6429 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
6430 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
6431 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
6432 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
6433 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
6434
6435       </div>
6436       <div class="tags">
6437
6438
6439         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6440
6441
6442       </div>
6443     </div>
6444     <div class="padding"></div>
6445
6446     <div class="entry">
6447       <div class="title">
6448         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
6449       </div>
6450       <div class="date">
6451         24th June 2010
6452       </div>
6453       <div class="body">
6454         <p>A while back, I
6455 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
6456 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
6457 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
6458 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
6459
6460 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
6461 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
6462 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
6463 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
6464
6465 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
6466 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
6467 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
6468 Debian Edu.</p>
6469
6470 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
6471 the
6472 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
6473 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
6474 available today from IETF.</p>
6475
6476 <pre>
6477 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
6478 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
6479 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
6480  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
6481         NAME 'dhcpHost'
6482         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
6483 -       SUP top
6484 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
6485         MUST cn
6486         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
6487         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
6488 </pre>
6489
6490 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
6491 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
6492 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
6493
6494 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6495 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6496
6497       </div>
6498       <div class="tags">
6499
6500
6501         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6502
6503
6504       </div>
6505     </div>
6506     <div class="padding"></div>
6507
6508     <div class="entry">
6509       <div class="title">
6510         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
6511       </div>
6512       <div class="date">
6513         16th June 2010
6514       </div>
6515       <div class="body">
6516         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
6517 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
6518 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
6519 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
6520 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
6521 this:
6522
6523 <blockquote><pre>
6524 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6525 tasksel --new-install
6526 </pre></blockquote>
6527
6528 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
6529 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
6530 any output what so ever.
6531
6532 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
6533 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
6534 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
6535 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
6536 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
6537 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
6538 code like this:
6539
6540 <blockquote><pre>
6541 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6542 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
6543 $cmd
6544 </pre></blockquote>
6545
6546 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
6547 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
6548 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
6549 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
6550 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
6551 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
6552 installation.</p>
6553
6554 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
6555 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
6556 like this.</p>
6557
6558       </div>
6559       <div class="tags">
6560
6561
6562         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6563
6564
6565       </div>
6566     </div>
6567     <div class="padding"></div>
6568
6569     <div class="entry">
6570       <div class="title">
6571         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
6572       </div>
6573       <div class="date">
6574         13th June 2010
6575       </div>
6576       <div class="body">
6577         <p>My
6578 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
6579 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
6580 finally made the upgrade logs available from
6581 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
6582 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
6583 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
6584 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
6585
6586 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
6587 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
6588 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
6589 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
6590 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
6591 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
6592 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
6593 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
6594
6595 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
6596 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
6597 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
6598 too surprising.</p>
6599
6600 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
6601 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
6602 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
6603 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
6604 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
6605 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
6606 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
6607 continue.</p>
6608
6609 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
6610 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
6611   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
6612   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
6613   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
6614   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
6615   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
6616   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6617   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6618   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
6619   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
6620   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
6621   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
6622   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6623   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6624   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6625   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6626   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6627   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
6628   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
6629   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
6630   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
6631   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
6632   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
6633   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
6634   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
6635   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
6636   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
6637   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
6638   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
6639
6640 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
6641
6642 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
6643   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
6644   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
6645   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
6646   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
6647   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
6648   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
6649   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
6650   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
6651   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
6652   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6653   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
6654   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
6655   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
6656   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
6657   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
6658   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
6659   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
6660   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
6661   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
6662   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
6663   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
6664   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
6665   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
6666   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
6667   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
6668   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
6669   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
6670   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
6671   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6672   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
6673   zip</p>
6674
6675 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
6676
6677 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
6678   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
6679   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
6680   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
6681   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
6682   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
6683   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6684   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6685   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
6686   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
6687   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
6688   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
6689   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6690   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6691   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6692   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6693   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6694   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
6695   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
6696   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
6697   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
6698   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
6699   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
6700   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
6701   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
6702   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
6703   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
6704   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
6705
6706 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
6707 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
6708   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
6709   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
6710   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
6711   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
6712   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
6713   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
6714   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
6715   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
6716   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
6717   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
6718   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
6719   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
6720   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
6721   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
6722   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
6723   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
6724   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
6725   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
6726   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
6727   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
6728   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
6729   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
6730   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
6731   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
6732   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
6733   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
6734   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
6735   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
6736   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
6737   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
6738   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
6739   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
6740   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
6741   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
6742   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
6743   xulrunner-1.9</p>
6744
6745
6746       </div>
6747       <div class="tags">
6748
6749
6750         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6751
6752
6753       </div>
6754     </div>
6755     <div class="padding"></div>
6756
6757     <div class="entry">
6758       <div class="title">
6759         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
6760       </div>
6761       <div class="date">
6762         11th June 2010
6763       </div>
6764       <div class="body">
6765         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
6766 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
6767 have been discovered and reported in the process
6768 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
6769 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
6770 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
6771 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
6772 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
6773
6774 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
6775 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
6776 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
6777 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
6778 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
6779 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
6780
6781 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
6782 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
6783 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
6784 is created.  The bug report
6785 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
6786 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
6787 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
6788 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
6789 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
6790 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
6791 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
6792 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
6793 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
6794 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
6795 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
6796 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
6797 Debian Squeeze.</p>
6798
6799 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
6800 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
6801 trick:</p>
6802
6803 <blockquote><pre>
6804 #!/bin/sh
6805 set -ex
6806
6807 if [ "$1" ] ; then
6808     desktop=$1
6809 else
6810     desktop=gnome
6811 fi
6812
6813 from=lenny
6814 to=squeeze
6815
6816 exec &lt; /dev/null
6817 unset LANG
6818 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
6819 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
6820 fuser -mv .
6821 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
6822 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
6823 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
6824 #!/bin/sh
6825 exit 101
6826 EOF
6827 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
6828 exit_cleanup() {
6829     umount $tmpdir/proc
6830 }
6831 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
6832 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
6833 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
6834
6835 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
6836
6837 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
6838 # to return the correct answers.
6839 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
6840     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
6841
6842 # Include the desktop and laptop task
6843 for test in desktop laptop ; do
6844     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
6845 #!/bin/sh
6846 exit 2
6847 EOF
6848     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
6849 done
6850
6851 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
6852 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
6853 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
6854 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
6855
6856 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
6857 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
6858 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
6859 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
6860 fuser -mv
6861 </pre></blockquote>
6862
6863 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
6864 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
6865 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
6866 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
6867 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
6868 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
6869
6870 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
6871 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
6872 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
6873 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
6874 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
6875 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
6876 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
6877
6878 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
6879 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
6880 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
6881 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
6882 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
6883 packages.</p>
6884
6885       </div>
6886       <div class="tags">
6887
6888
6889         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6890
6891
6892       </div>
6893     </div>
6894     <div class="padding"></div>
6895
6896     <div class="entry">
6897       <div class="title">
6898         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
6899       </div>
6900       <div class="date">
6901          6th June 2010
6902       </div>
6903       <div class="body">
6904         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
6905 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
6906 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
6907 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
6908 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
6909 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
6910 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
6911
6912 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
6913 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
6914 COLUMNS):</p>
6915
6916 <blockquote><pre>
6917 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
6918 previous=N
6919 PREVLEVEL=
6920 RUNLEVEL=
6921 runlevel=S
6922 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
6923 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
6924 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
6925 </pre></blockquote>
6926
6927 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
6928 script.</p>
6929
6930 <blockquote><pre>
6931 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
6932 previous=N
6933 PREVLEVEL=N
6934 RUNLEVEL=S
6935 runlevel=S
6936 </pre></blockquote>
6937
6938 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
6939 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
6940 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
6941
6942 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
6943 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
6944 choice.</p>
6945
6946       </div>
6947       <div class="tags">
6948
6949
6950         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6951
6952
6953       </div>
6954     </div>
6955     <div class="padding"></div>
6956
6957     <div class="entry">
6958       <div class="title">
6959         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
6960       </div>
6961       <div class="date">
6962          6th June 2010
6963       </div>
6964       <div class="body">
6965         <p>Via the
6966 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
6967 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
6968 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
6969 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
6970 following the standards wars of today.</p>
6971
6972       </div>
6973       <div class="tags">
6974
6975
6976         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
6977
6978
6979       </div>
6980     </div>
6981     <div class="padding"></div>
6982
6983     <div class="entry">
6984       <div class="title">
6985         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
6986       </div>
6987       <div class="date">
6988          3rd June 2010
6989       </div>
6990       <div class="body">
6991         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
6992 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
6993 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
6994 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
6995 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
6996
6997 <blockquote><pre>
6998 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
6999   vendor                    count
7000   Dell Computer Corporation     1
7001     PowerEdge 1750              1
7002   IBM                           1
7003     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
7004   Intel                         2
7005   [no-dmi-info]                 3
7006 maintainer:~#
7007 </pre></blockquote>
7008
7009 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
7010 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
7011 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
7012 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
7013 option to list the individual machines.</p>
7014
7015 <p>A larger list is
7016 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
7017 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
7018 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
7019 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
7020 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
7021 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
7022 collector.</p>
7023
7024       </div>
7025       <div class="tags">
7026
7027
7028         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
7029
7030
7031       </div>
7032     </div>
7033     <div class="padding"></div>
7034
7035     <div class="entry">
7036       <div class="title">
7037         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
7038       </div>
7039       <div class="date">
7040          1st June 2010
7041       </div>
7042       <div class="body">
7043         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
7044 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
7045 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
7046 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
7047 wait.</p>
7048
7049 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
7050 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
7051 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
7052 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
7053 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
7054 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
7055
7056 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
7057 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
7058 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
7059 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
7060 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
7061 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
7062 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
7063 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
7064
7065 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
7066
7067       </div>
7068       <div class="tags">
7069
7070
7071         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7072
7073
7074       </div>
7075     </div>
7076     <div class="padding"></div>
7077
7078     <div class="entry">
7079       <div class="title">
7080         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
7081       </div>
7082       <div class="date">
7083         27th May 2010
7084       </div>
7085       <div class="body">
7086         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
7087 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
7088 issues are known and should be solved:
7089
7090 <p><ul>
7091
7092 <li>The wicd package seen to
7093 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
7094 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
7095 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
7096 seem to be on the case.</li>
7097
7098 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
7099 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
7100 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
7101 maintainer is on the case.</li>
7102
7103 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
7104 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
7105 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
7106 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
7107 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
7108 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
7109 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
7110 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
7111
7112 </ul></p>
7113
7114 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
7115 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
7116 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
7117 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
7118
7119 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7120 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7121 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7122 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7123
7124 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
7125
7126       </div>
7127       <div class="tags">
7128
7129
7130         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7131
7132
7133       </div>
7134     </div>
7135     <div class="padding"></div>
7136
7137     <div class="entry">
7138       <div class="title">
7139         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
7140       </div>
7141       <div class="date">
7142         22nd May 2010
7143       </div>
7144       <div class="body">
7145         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
7146 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
7147 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
7148 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
7149
7150 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
7151 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
7152 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
7153 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
7154 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
7155 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
7156 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
7157 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
7158 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
7159 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
7160 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
7161 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
7162 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
7163 going to work.</p>
7164
7165 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
7166 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
7167 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
7168 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
7169 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
7170 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
7171 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
7172 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
7173 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
7174 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
7175 Edu.</p>
7176
7177 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
7178 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
7179 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
7180 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
7181 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
7182 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
7183
7184 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
7185 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
7186
7187       </div>
7188       <div class="tags">
7189
7190
7191         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7192
7193
7194       </div>
7195     </div>
7196     <div class="padding"></div>
7197
7198     <div class="entry">
7199       <div class="title">
7200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
7201       </div>
7202       <div class="date">
7203         14th May 2010
7204       </div>
7205       <div class="body">
7206         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
7207 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
7208 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
7209 expected, if I am to believe the
7210 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7211 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
7212 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
7213 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
7214 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
7215 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
7216 version.</p>
7217
7218 More information about
7219 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7220 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
7221 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
7222 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7223
7224 <blockquote><pre>
7225 CONCURRENCY=none
7226 </pre></blockquote>
7227
7228 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7229 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7230 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7231 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7232
7233       </div>
7234       <div class="tags">
7235
7236
7237         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7238
7239
7240       </div>
7241     </div>
7242     <div class="padding"></div>
7243
7244     <div class="entry">
7245       <div class="title">
7246         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
7247       </div>
7248       <div class="date">
7249         14th May 2010
7250       </div>
7251       <div class="body">
7252         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
7253 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
7254 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
7255 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
7256 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
7257 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
7258 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
7259 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
7260
7261 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
7262 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
7263 this on the collector host:</p>
7264
7265 <blockquote><pre>
7266 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
7267 </pre></blockquote>
7268
7269 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
7270 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
7271
7272 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
7273 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
7274 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
7275 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
7276 written yet.</p>
7277
7278       </div>
7279       <div class="tags">
7280
7281
7282         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
7283
7284
7285       </div>
7286     </div>
7287     <div class="padding"></div>
7288
7289     <div class="entry">
7290       <div class="title">
7291         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
7292       </div>
7293       <div class="date">
7294         13th May 2010
7295       </div>
7296       <div class="body">
7297         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
7298 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
7299 has been
7300 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
7301
7302 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
7303 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
7304 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
7305 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
7306 based boot system.  Tollef is
7307 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
7308 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
7309 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
7310 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
7311 at the moment do not.</p>
7312
7313 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
7314 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
7315 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
7316 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
7317 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
7318 way forward.</p>
7319
7320 <p>In the mean time, based on the
7321 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7322 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
7323 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
7324 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
7325 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
7326 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
7327 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
7328 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
7329
7330       </div>
7331       <div class="tags">
7332
7333
7334         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7335
7336
7337       </div>
7338     </div>
7339     <div class="padding"></div>
7340
7341     <div class="entry">
7342       <div class="title">
7343         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
7344       </div>
7345       <div class="date">
7346          6th May 2010
7347       </div>
7348       <div class="body">
7349         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
7350 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
7351 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
7352 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
7353 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7354 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
7355 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7356
7357 <blockquote><pre>
7358 CONCURRENCY=makefile
7359 </pre></blockquote>
7360
7361 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
7362 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
7363 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
7364 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
7365 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
7366 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
7367 make this happen.</p>
7368
7369 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
7370 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
7371 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
7372 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
7373 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
7374
7375 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
7376 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
7377 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
7378 fix the remaining issues.</p>
7379
7380 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7381 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7382 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7383 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7384
7385       </div>
7386       <div class="tags">
7387
7388
7389         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7390
7391
7392       </div>
7393     </div>
7394     <div class="padding"></div>
7395
7396     <div class="entry">
7397       <div class="title">
7398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
7399       </div>
7400       <div class="date">
7401         27th July 2009
7402       </div>
7403       <div class="body">
7404         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
7405 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
7406 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
7407 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
7408 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
7409 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
7410 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
7411
7412 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
7413 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
7414 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
7415
7416       </div>
7417       <div class="tags">
7418
7419
7420         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7421
7422
7423       </div>
7424     </div>
7425     <div class="padding"></div>
7426
7427     <div class="entry">
7428       <div class="title">
7429         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
7430       </div>
7431       <div class="date">
7432         22nd July 2009
7433       </div>
7434       <div class="body">
7435         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
7436 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
7437 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
7438 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
7439 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
7440 the package up to date.</p>
7441
7442 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
7443 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
7444 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
7445 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
7446 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
7447 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
7448 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
7449 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
7450 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
7451 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
7452 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
7453 working on the future release.</p>
7454
7455 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
7456 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
7457
7458       </div>
7459       <div class="tags">
7460
7461
7462         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7463
7464
7465       </div>
7466     </div>
7467     <div class="padding"></div>
7468
7469     <div class="entry">
7470       <div class="title">
7471         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
7472       </div>
7473       <div class="date">
7474         24th June 2009
7475       </div>
7476       <div class="body">
7477         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
7478 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
7479 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
7480 funded
7481 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
7482 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
7483 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
7484 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
7485 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
7486 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
7487
7488 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
7489 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
7490 boot:</p>
7491
7492 <ul>
7493
7494 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
7495
7496 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
7497    clock is in UTC.</li>
7498
7499 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
7500    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7501    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
7502
7503 </ul>
7504
7505 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
7506 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
7507 Villegas</a>.
7508
7509 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
7510 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
7511 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
7512 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
7513 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
7514 using this.</p>
7515
7516 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
7517 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
7518 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
7519 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
7520 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
7521 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
7522 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
7523
7524       </div>
7525       <div class="tags">
7526
7527
7528         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7529
7530
7531       </div>
7532     </div>
7533     <div class="padding"></div>
7534
7535     <div class="entry">
7536       <div class="title">
7537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
7538       </div>
7539       <div class="date">
7540         17th May 2009
7541       </div>
7542       <div class="body">
7543         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
7544 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
7545 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
7546 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
7547 dager siden kom
7548 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
7549 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
7550 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
7551 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
7552 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
7553
7554 <blockquote>
7555 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
7556 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
7557 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
7558 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
7559 </blockquote>
7560
7561 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
7562 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
7563 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
7564 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
7565 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
7566
7567 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
7568 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
7569 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
7570
7571       </div>
7572       <div class="tags">
7573
7574
7575         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
7576
7577
7578       </div>
7579     </div>
7580     <div class="padding"></div>
7581
7582     <div class="entry">
7583       <div class="title">
7584         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
7585       </div>
7586       <div class="date">
7587          7th May 2009
7588       </div>
7589       <div class="body">
7590         <p>Kom over
7591 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
7592 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
7593 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
7594 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
7595 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
7596 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
7597 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
7598
7599       </div>
7600       <div class="tags">
7601
7602
7603         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7604
7605
7606       </div>
7607     </div>
7608     <div class="padding"></div>
7609
7610     <div class="entry">
7611       <div class="title">
7612         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
7613       </div>
7614       <div class="date">
7615          2nd May 2009
7616       </div>
7617       <div class="body">
7618         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
7619 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
7620 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
7621 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
7622 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
7623 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
7624 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
7625 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
7626 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
7627 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
7628 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
7629 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
7630 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
7631 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
7632 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
7633 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
7634 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
7635 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
7636 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
7637 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
7638
7639 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
7640 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
7641 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
7642 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
7643 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
7644 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
7645 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
7646 betydelige.</p>
7647
7648       </div>
7649       <div class="tags">
7650
7651
7652         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7653
7654
7655       </div>
7656     </div>
7657     <div class="padding"></div>
7658
7659     <div class="entry">
7660       <div class="title">
7661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
7662       </div>
7663       <div class="date">
7664          2nd May 2009
7665       </div>
7666       <div class="body">
7667         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
7668 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
7669 do not yet know them.</p>
7670
7671 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
7672 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
7673 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
7674 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
7675 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
7676 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
7677 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
7678 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
7679 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
7680 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
7681 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
7682
7683 <p>The second one is
7684 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
7685 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
7686 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
7687 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
7688 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
7689 and the company behind it is running
7690 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
7691 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
7692 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
7693 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
7694 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
7695 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
7696 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
7697 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
7698
7699 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
7700 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
7701 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
7702 surrounded by today.</p>
7703
7704       </div>
7705       <div class="tags">
7706
7707
7708         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7709
7710
7711       </div>
7712     </div>
7713     <div class="padding"></div>
7714
7715     <div class="entry">
7716       <div class="title">
7717         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
7718       </div>
7719       <div class="date">
7720         28th April 2009
7721       </div>
7722       <div class="body">
7723         <p>Julien Blache
7724 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
7725 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
7726 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
7727 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
7728 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
7729 properties.</p>
7730
7731       </div>
7732       <div class="tags">
7733
7734
7735         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7736
7737
7738       </div>
7739     </div>
7740     <div class="padding"></div>
7741
7742     <div class="entry">
7743       <div class="title">
7744         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
7745       </div>
7746       <div class="date">
7747         30th March 2009
7748       </div>
7749       <div class="body">
7750         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
7751 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
7752 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
7753 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
7754 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
7755 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
7756 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
7757 application.</p>
7758
7759 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
7760 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
7761 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
7762 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
7763 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
7764 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
7765 blocked from doing so.</p>
7766
7767 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
7768 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
7769 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
7770 requirements change.</p>
7771
7772 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
7773 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
7774 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
7775
7776       </div>
7777       <div class="tags">
7778
7779
7780         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
7781
7782
7783       </div>
7784     </div>
7785     <div class="padding"></div>
7786
7787     <div class="entry">
7788       <div class="title">
7789         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
7790       </div>
7791       <div class="date">
7792         29th March 2009
7793       </div>
7794       <div class="body">
7795         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
7796 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
7797 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
7798 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
7799 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
7800 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
7801 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
7802 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
7803 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
7804 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
7805 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
7806 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
7807 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
7808 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
7809 now. :)</p>
7810
7811       </div>
7812       <div class="tags">
7813
7814
7815         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7816
7817
7818       </div>
7819     </div>
7820     <div class="padding"></div>
7821
7822     <div class="entry">
7823       <div class="title">
7824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
7825       </div>
7826       <div class="date">
7827         29th March 2009
7828       </div>
7829       <div class="body">
7830         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
7831 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
7832 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
7833 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
7834 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
7835 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
7836
7837 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
7838 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
7839 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
7840 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
7841 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
7842 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
7843 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
7844 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
7845 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
7846 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
7847 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
7848 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
7849 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
7850
7851 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
7852 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
7853 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
7854 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
7855
7856 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
7857 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
7858
7859 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
7860 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
7861 new IETF work group?</p>
7862
7863       </div>
7864       <div class="tags">
7865
7866
7867         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7868
7869
7870       </div>
7871     </div>
7872     <div class="padding"></div>
7873
7874     <div class="entry">
7875       <div class="title">
7876         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
7877       </div>
7878       <div class="date">
7879         15th February 2009
7880       </div>
7881       <div class="body">
7882         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
7883 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
7884 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
7885 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
7886 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
7887 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
7888 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
7889 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
7890 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
7891 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
7892 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
7893 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
7894
7895       </div>
7896       <div class="tags">
7897
7898
7899         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
7900
7901
7902       </div>
7903     </div>
7904     <div class="padding"></div>
7905
7906     <div class="entry">
7907       <div class="title">
7908         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
7909       </div>
7910       <div class="date">
7911          7th December 2008
7912       </div>
7913       <div class="body">
7914         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
7915 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
7916 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
7917 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
7918 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
7919 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
7920 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
7921 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
7922
7923 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
7924 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
7925 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
7926 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
7927 of these cards.</p>
7928
7929       </div>
7930       <div class="tags">
7931
7932
7933         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
7934
7935
7936       </div>
7937     </div>
7938     <div class="padding"></div>
7939
7940     <div class="entry">
7941       <div class="title">
7942         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
7943       </div>
7944       <div class="date">
7945         25th November 2008
7946       </div>
7947       <div class="body">
7948         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
7949 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
7950 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
7951 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
7952 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
7953 notes are available on
7954 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
7955 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
7956 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
7957 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
7958 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
7959 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
7960 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
7961 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
7962 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
7963
7964 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
7965 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
7966
7967       </div>
7968       <div class="tags">
7969
7970
7971         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
7972
7973
7974       </div>
7975     </div>
7976     <div class="padding"></div>
7977
7978     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
7979     <div id="sidebar">
7980
7981
7982
7983 <h2>Archive</h2>
7984 <ul>
7985
7986 <li>2014
7987 <ul>
7988
7989 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
7990
7991 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
7992
7993 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
7994
7995 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
7996
7997 </ul></li>
7998
7999 <li>2013
8000 <ul>
8001
8002 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
8003
8004 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
8005
8006 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
8007
8008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
8009
8010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8011
8012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
8013
8014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8015
8016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8017
8018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8019
8020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
8021
8022 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
8023
8024 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8025
8026 </ul></li>
8027
8028 <li>2012
8029 <ul>
8030
8031 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
8032
8033 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
8034
8035 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
8036
8037 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
8038
8039 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
8040
8041 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
8042
8043 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
8044
8045 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8046
8047 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
8048
8049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
8050
8051 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
8052
8053 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8054
8055 </ul></li>
8056
8057 <li>2011
8058 <ul>
8059
8060 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
8061
8062 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
8063
8064 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
8065
8066 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8067
8068 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
8069
8070 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8071
8072 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8073
8074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8075
8076 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
8077
8078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8079
8080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8081
8082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
8083
8084 </ul></li>
8085
8086 <li>2010
8087 <ul>
8088
8089 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8090
8091 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
8092
8093 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
8094
8095 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
8096
8097 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8098
8099 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
8100
8101 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
8102
8103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
8104
8105 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
8106
8107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
8108
8109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
8110
8111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
8112
8113 </ul></li>
8114
8115 <li>2009
8116 <ul>
8117
8118 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
8119
8120 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
8121
8122 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
8123
8124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
8125
8126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8127
8128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
8129
8130 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
8131
8132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8133
8134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
8135
8136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8137
8138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8139
8140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8141
8142 </ul></li>
8143
8144 <li>2008
8145 <ul>
8146
8147 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
8148
8149 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8150
8151 </ul></li>
8152
8153 </ul>
8154
8155
8156
8157 <h2>Tags</h2>
8158 <ul>
8159
8160  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
8161
8162  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
8163
8164  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
8165
8166  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
8167
8168  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
8169
8170  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (14)</a></li>
8171
8172  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
8173
8174  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
8175
8176  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (98)</a></li>
8177
8178  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (146)</a></li>
8179
8180  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
8181
8182  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
8183
8184  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
8185
8186  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
8187
8188  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (246)</a></li>
8189
8190  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
8191
8192  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
8193
8194  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
8195
8196  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (8)</a></li>
8197
8198  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
8199
8200  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (40)</a></li>
8201
8202  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (9)</a></li>
8203
8204  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
8205
8206  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
8207
8208  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (7)</a></li>
8209
8210  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
8211
8212  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
8213
8214  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (27)</a></li>
8215
8216  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (245)</a></li>
8217
8218  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (162)</a></li>
8219
8220  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (11)</a></li>
8221
8222  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
8223
8224  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (46)</a></li>
8225
8226  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (72)</a></li>
8227
8228  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
8229
8230  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
8231
8232  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
8233
8234  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
8235
8236  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
8237
8238  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
8239
8240  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
8241
8242  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
8243
8244  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (40)</a></li>
8245
8246  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
8247
8248  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
8249
8250  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (44)</a></li>
8251
8252  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
8253
8254  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
8255
8256  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (25)</a></li>
8257
8258  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
8259
8260  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
8261
8262  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (41)</a></li>
8263
8264  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
8265
8266  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (31)</a></li>
8267
8268 </ul>
8269
8270
8271     </div>
8272     <p style="text-align: right">
8273  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
8274 </p>
8275
8276   </body>
8277 </html>