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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="https://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="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/45_orphaned_Debian_packages_moved_to_git__391_to_go.html">45 orphaned Debian packages moved to git, 391 to go</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         25th April 2024
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Nine days ago, I started migrating orphaned Debian packages with no
  32 version control system listed in debian/control of the source to git.
  33 At the time there were 438 such packages.  Now there are 391,
  34 according to the UDD.  In reality it is slightly less, as there is a
  35 delay between uploads and UDD updates.  In the nine days since, I have
  36 thus been able to work my way through ten percent of the packages.  I
  37 am starting to run out of steam, and hope someone else will also help
  38 brushing some dust of these packages.  Here is a recipe how to do it.
  39
  40 I start by picking a random package by querying the UDD for a list of
  41 10 random packages from the set of remaining packages:
  42
  43 <blockquote><pre>
  44 PGPASSWORD="udd-mirror" psql --port=5432 --host=udd-mirror.debian.net \
  45   --username=udd-mirror udd -c "select source from sources \
  46    where release = 'sid' and (vcs_url ilike '%anonscm.debian.org%' \
  47    OR vcs_browser ilike '%anonscm.debian.org%' or vcs_url IS NULL \
  48    OR vcs_browser IS NULL) AND maintainer ilike '%packages@qa.debian.org%' \
  49    order by random() limit 10;"
  50 </pre></blockquote>
  51
  52 <p>Next, I visit http://salsa.debian.org/debian and search for the
  53 package name, to ensure no git repository already exist.  If it does,
  54 I clone it and try to get it to an uploadable state, and add the Vcs-*
  55 entries in d/control to make the repository more widely known.  These
  56 packages are a minority, so I will not cover that use case here.</p>
  57
  58 <p>For packages without an existing git repository, I run the
  59 following script <tt>debian-snap-to-salsa</tt> to prepare a git
  60 repository with the existing packaging.</p>
  61
  62 <blockquote><pre>
  63 #!/bin/sh
  64 #
  65 # See also https://bugs.debian.org/804722#31
  66
  67 set -e
  68
  69 # Move to this Standards-Version.
  70 SV_LATEST=4.7.0
  71
  72 PKG="$1"
  73
  74 if [ -z "$PKG" ]; then
  75     echo "usage: $0 <pkgname>"
  76     exit 1
  77 fi
  78
  79 if [ -e "${PKG}-salsa" ]; then
  80     echo "error: ${PKG}-salsa already exist, aborting."
  81     exit 1
  82 fi
  83
  84 if [ -z "ALLOWFAILURE" ] ; then
  85     ALLOWFAILURE=false
  86 fi
  87
  88 # Fetch every snapshotted source package.  Manually loop until all
  89 # transfers succeed, as 'gbp import-dscs --debsnap' do not fail on
  90 # download failures.
  91 until debsnap --force -v $PKG || $ALLOWFAILURE ; do sleep 1; done
  92 mkdir ${PKG}-salsa; cd ${PKG}-salsa
  93 git init
  94
  95 # Specify branches to override any debian/gbp.conf file present in the
  96 # source package.
  97 gbp import-dscs  --debian-branch=master --upstream-branch=upstream \
  98     --pristine-tar ../source-$PKG/*.dsc
  99
 100 # Add Vcs pointing to Salsa Debian project (must be manually created
 101 # and pushed to).
 102 if ! grep -q ^Vcs- debian/control ; then
 103     awk "BEGIN { s=1 } /^\$/ { if (s==1) { print \"Vcs-Browser: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/$PKG\"; print \"Vcs-Git: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/$PKG.git\" }; s=0 } { print }" < debian/control > debian/control.new && mv debian/control.new debian/control
 104     git commit -m "Updated vcs in d/control to Salsa." debian/control
 105 fi
 106
 107 # Tell gbp to enforce the use of pristine-tar.
 108 inifile +inifile debian/gbp.conf +create +section DEFAULT +key pristine-tar +value True
 109 git add debian/gbp.conf
 110 git commit -m "Added d/gbp.conf to enforce the use of pristine-tar." debian/gbp.conf
 111
 112 # Update to latest Standards-Version.
 113 SV="$(grep ^Standards-Version: debian/control|awk '{print $2}')"
 114 if [ $SV_LATEST != $SV ]; then
 115     sed -i "s/\(Standards-Version: \)\(.*\)/\1$SV_LATEST/" debian/control
 116     git commit -m "Updated Standards-Version from $SV to $SV_LATEST." debian/control
 117 fi
 118
 119 if grep -q pkg-config debian/control; then
 120     sed -i s/pkg-config/pkgconf/ debian/control
 121     git commit -m "Replaced obsolete pkg-config build dependency with pkgconf." debian/control
 122 fi
 123
 124 if grep -q libncurses5-dev debian/control; then
 125     sed -i s/libncurses5-dev/libncurses-dev/ debian/control
 126     git commit -m "Replaced obsolete libncurses5-dev build dependency with libncurses-dev." debian/control
 127 fi
 128 </pre></blockquote>
 129
 130 Some times the debsnap script fail to download some of the versions.
 131 In those cases I investigate, and if I decide the failing versions
 132 will not be missed, I call it using ALLOWFAILURE=true to ignore the
 133 problem and create the git repository anyway.</p>
 134
 135 <p>With the git repository in place, I do a test build (gbp
 136 buildpackage) to ensure the build is actually working.  If it does not
 137 I pick a different package, or if the build failure is trivial to fix,
 138 I fix it before continuing.  At this stage I revisit
 139 http://salsa.debian.org/debian and create the project under this group
 140 for the package.  I then follow the instructions to publish the local
 141 git repository.  Here is from a recent example:</p>
 142
 143 <blockquote><pre>
 144 git remote add origin git@salsa.debian.org:debian/perl-byacc.git
 145 git push --set-upstream origin master upstream pristine-tar
 146 git push --tags
 147 </pre></blockquote>
 148
 149 <p>With a working build, I have a look at the build rules if I want to
 150 remove some more dust.  I normally try to move to debhelper compat
 151 level 13, which involves removing debian/compat and modifying
 152 debian/control to build depend on debhelper-compat (=13).  I also test
 153 with 'Rules-Requires-Root: no' in debian/control and verify in
 154 debian/rules that hardening is enabled, and include all of these if
 155 the package still build.  If it fail to build with level 13, I try
 156 with 12, 11, 10 and so on until I find a level where it build, as I do
 157 not want to spend a lot of time fixing build issues.</p>
 158
 159 <p>Some times, when I feel inspired, I make sure debian/copyright is
 160 converted to the machine readable format, often by starting with
 161 'debhelper -cc' and then cleaning up the autogenerated content until
 162 it matches realities.  If I feel like it, I might also clean up
 163 non-dh-based debian/rules files to use the short style dh build
 164 rules.</p>
 165
 166 <p>Once I have removed all the dust I care to process for the package,
 167 I run 'gbp dch' to generate a debian/changelog entry based on the
 168 commits done so far, run 'dch -r' to switch from 'UNRELEASED' to
 169 'unstable' and get an editor to make sure the 'QA upload' marker is in
 170 place and that all long commit descriptions are wrapped into sensible
 171 lengths, run 'debcommit --release -a' to commit and tag the new
 172 debian/changelog entry, run 'debuild -S' to build a source only
 173 package, and 'dput ../perl-byacc_2.0-10_source.changes' to do the
 174 upload.  During the entire process, and many times per step, I run
 175 'debuild' to verify the changes done still work.  I also some times
 176 verify the set of built files using 'find debian' to see if I can spot
 177 any problems (like no file in usr/bin any more or empty package).  I
 178 also try to fix all lintian issues reported at the end of each
 179 'debuild' run.</p>
 180
 181 <p>If I find Debian specific patches, I try to ensure their metadata
 182 is fairly up to date and some times I even try to reach out to
 183 upstream, to make the upstream project aware of the patches.  Most of
 184 my emails bounce, so the success rate is low.  For projects with no
 185 Homepage entry in debian/control I try to track down one, and for
 186 packages with no debian/watch file I try to create one.  But at least
 187 for some of the packages I have been unable to find a functioning
 188 upstream, and must skip both of these.</p>
 189
 190 <p>If I could handle ten percent in nine days, twenty people could
 191 complete the rest in less then five days.  I use approximately twenty
 192 minutes per package, when I have twenty minutes spare time to spend.
 193 Perhaps you got twenty minutes to spare too?</p>
 194
 195 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 196 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 197 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 198
 199       </div>
 200       <div class="tags">
 201
 202
 203         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 204
 205
 206       </div>
 207     </div>
 208     <div class="padding"></div>
 209
 210     <div class="entry">
 211       <div class="title">
 212         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_move_orphaned_Debian_packages_to_git.html">Time to move orphaned Debian packages to git</a>
 213       </div>
 214       <div class="date">
 215         14th April 2024
 216       </div>
 217       <div class="body">
 218         <p>There are several packages in Debian without a associated git
 219 repository with the packaging history.  This is unfortunate and it
 220 would be nice if more of these would do so.  Quote a lot of these are
 221 without a maintainer, ie listed as maintained by the
 222 '<a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=packages%40qa.debian.org">Debian
 223 QA Group</a>' place holder.  In fact, 438 packages have this property
 224 according to UDD (<tt>SELECT source FROM sources WHERE release = 'sid'
 225 AND (vcs_url ilike '%anonscm.debian.org%' OR vcs_browser ilike
 226 '%anonscm.debian.org%' or vcs_url IS NULL OR vcs_browser IS NULL) AND
 227 maintainer ilike '%packages@qa.debian.org%';</tt>).  Such packages can
 228 be updated without much coordination by any Debian developer, as they
 229 are considered orphaned.</p>
 230
 231 <p>To try to improve the situation and reduce the number of packages
 232 without associated git repository, I started a few days ago to search
 233 out candiates and provide them with a git repository under the
 234 'debian' collaborative Salsa project.  I started with the packages
 235 pointing to obsolete Alioth git repositories, and am now working my
 236 way across the ones completely without git references.  In addition to
 237 updating the Vcs-* debian/control fields, I try to update
 238 Standards-Version, debhelper compat level, simplify d/rules, switch to
 239 Rules-Requires-Root: no and fix lintian issues reported.  I only
 240 implement those that are trivial to fix, to avoid spending too much
 241 time on each orphaned package.  So far my experience is that it take
 242 aproximately 20 minutes to convert a package without any git
 243 references, and a lot more for packages with existing git repositories
 244 incompatible with git-buildpackages.</p>
 245
 246 <p>So far I have converted 10 packages, and I will keep going until I
 247 run out of steam.  As should be clear from the numbers, there is
 248 enough packages remaining for more people to do the same without
 249 stepping on each others toes.  I find it useful to start by searching
 250 for a git repo already on salsa, as I find that some times a git repo
 251 has already been created, but no new version is uploaded to Debian
 252 yet.  In those cases I start with the existing git repository.  I
 253 convert to the git-buildpackage+pristine-tar workflow, and ensure a
 254 debian/gbp.conf file with "pristine-tar=True" is added early, to avoid
 255 uploading a orig.tar.gz with the wrong checksum by mistake.  Did that
 256 three times in the begin before I remembered my mistake.</p>
 257
 258 <p>So, if you are a Debian Developer and got some spare time, perhaps
 259 considering migrating some orphaned packages to git?</p>
 260
 261 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 262 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 263 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 264
 265       </div>
 266       <div class="tags">
 267
 268
 269         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 270
 271
 272       </div>
 273     </div>
 274     <div class="padding"></div>
 275
 276     <div class="entry">
 277       <div class="title">
 278         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_and_improved_sqlcipher_in_Debian_for_accessing_Signal_database.html">New and improved sqlcipher in Debian for accessing Signal database</a>
 279       </div>
 280       <div class="date">
 281         12th November 2023
 282       </div>
 283       <div class="body">
 284         <p>For a while now I wanted to have direct access to the
 285 <a href="https://signal.org/">Signal</a> database of messages and
 286 channels of my Desktop edition of Signal.  I prefer the enforced end
 287 to end encryption of Signal these days for my communication with
 288 friends and family, to increase the level of safety and privacy as
 289 well as raising the cost of the mass surveillance government and
 290 non-government entities practice these days.  In August I came across
 291 a nice
 292 <a href="https://www.yoranbrondsema.com/post/the-guide-to-extracting-statistics-from-your-signal-conversations/">recipe
 293 on how to use sqlcipher to extract statistics from the Signal
 294 database</a> explaining how to do this.  Unfortunately this did not
 295 work with the version of sqlcipher in Debian.  The
 296 <a href="http://tracker.debian.org/sqlcipher/">sqlcipher</a>
 297 package is a "fork" of the sqlite package with added support for
 298 encrypted databases.  Sadly the current Debian maintainer
 299 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/961598">announced more than three
 300 years ago that he did not have time to maintain sqlcipher</a>, so it
 301 seemed unlikely to be upgraded by the maintainer.  I was reluctant to
 302 take on the job myself, as I have very limited experience maintaining
 303 shared libraries in Debian.  After waiting and hoping for a few
 304 months, I gave up the last  week, and set out to update the package.  In
 305 the process I orphaned it to make it more obvious for the next person
 306 looking at it that the package need proper maintenance.</p>
 307
 308 <p>The version in Debian was around five years old, and quite a lot of
 309 changes had taken place upstream into the Debian maintenance git
 310 repository.  After spending a few days importing the new upstream
 311 versions, realising that upstream did not care much for SONAME
 312 versioning as I saw library symbols being both added and removed with
 313 minor version number changes to the project, I concluded that I had to
 314 do a SONAME bump of the library package to avoid surprising the
 315 reverse dependencies.  I even added a simple
 316 autopkgtest script to ensure the package work as intended.  Dug deep
 317 into the hole of learning shared library maintenance, I set out a few
 318 days ago to upload the new version to Debian experimental to see what
 319 the quality assurance framework in Debian had to say about the result.
 320 The feedback told me the pacakge was not too shabby, and yesterday I
 321 uploaded the latest version to Debian unstable.  It should enter
 322 testing today or tomorrow, perhaps delayed by
 323 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1055812">a small library
 324 transition</a>.</p>
 325
 326 <p>Armed with a new version of sqlcipher, I can now have a look at the
 327 SQL database in ~/.config/Signal/sql/db.sqlite.  First, one need to
 328 fetch the encryption key from the Signal configuration using this
 329 simple JSON extraction command:</p>
 330
 331 <pre>/usr/bin/jq -r '."key"' ~/.config/Signal/config.json</pre>
 332
 333 <p>Assuming the result from that command is 'secretkey', which is a
 334 hexadecimal number representing the key used to encrypt the database.
 335 Next, one can now connect to the database and inject the encryption
 336 key for access via SQL to fetch information from the database.  Here
 337 is an example dumping the database structure:</p>
 338
 339 <pre>
 340 % sqlcipher ~/.config/Signal/sql/db.sqlite
 341 sqlite> PRAGMA key = "x'secretkey'";
 342 sqlite> .schema
 343 CREATE TABLE sqlite_stat1(tbl,idx,stat);
 344 CREATE TABLE conversations(
 345       id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 346       json TEXT,
 347
 348       active_at INTEGER,
 349       type STRING,
 350       members TEXT,
 351       name TEXT,
 352       profileName TEXT
 353     , profileFamilyName TEXT, profileFullName TEXT, e164 TEXT, serviceId TEXT, groupId TEXT, profileLastFetchedAt INTEGER);
 354 CREATE TABLE identityKeys(
 355       id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 356       json TEXT
 357     );
 358 CREATE TABLE items(
 359       id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 360       json TEXT
 361     );
 362 CREATE TABLE sessions(
 363       id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 364       conversationId TEXT,
 365       json TEXT
 366     , ourServiceId STRING, serviceId STRING);
 367 CREATE TABLE attachment_downloads(
 368     id STRING primary key,
 369     timestamp INTEGER,
 370     pending INTEGER,
 371     json TEXT
 372   );
 373 CREATE TABLE sticker_packs(
 374     id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 375     key TEXT NOT NULL,
 376
 377     author STRING,
 378     coverStickerId INTEGER,
 379     createdAt INTEGER,
 380     downloadAttempts INTEGER,
 381     installedAt INTEGER,
 382     lastUsed INTEGER,
 383     status STRING,
 384     stickerCount INTEGER,
 385     title STRING
 386   , attemptedStatus STRING, position INTEGER DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL, storageID STRING, storageVersion INTEGER, storageUnknownFields BLOB, storageNeedsSync
 387       INTEGER DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL);
 388 CREATE TABLE stickers(
 389     id INTEGER NOT NULL,
 390     packId TEXT NOT NULL,
 391
 392     emoji STRING,
 393     height INTEGER,
 394     isCoverOnly INTEGER,
 395     lastUsed INTEGER,
 396     path STRING,
 397     width INTEGER,
 398
 399     PRIMARY KEY (id, packId),
 400     CONSTRAINT stickers_fk
 401       FOREIGN KEY (packId)
 402       REFERENCES sticker_packs(id)
 403       ON DELETE CASCADE
 404   );
 405 CREATE TABLE sticker_references(
 406     messageId STRING,
 407     packId TEXT,
 408     CONSTRAINT sticker_references_fk
 409       FOREIGN KEY(packId)
 410       REFERENCES sticker_packs(id)
 411       ON DELETE CASCADE
 412   );
 413 CREATE TABLE emojis(
 414     shortName TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 415     lastUsage INTEGER
 416   );
 417 CREATE TABLE messages(
 418         rowid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 419         id STRING UNIQUE,
 420         json TEXT,
 421         readStatus INTEGER,
 422         expires_at INTEGER,
 423         sent_at INTEGER,
 424         schemaVersion INTEGER,
 425         conversationId STRING,
 426         received_at INTEGER,
 427         source STRING,
 428         hasAttachments INTEGER,
 429         hasFileAttachments INTEGER,
 430         hasVisualMediaAttachments INTEGER,
 431         expireTimer INTEGER,
 432         expirationStartTimestamp INTEGER,
 433         type STRING,
 434         body TEXT,
 435         messageTimer INTEGER,
 436         messageTimerStart INTEGER,
 437         messageTimerExpiresAt INTEGER,
 438         isErased INTEGER,
 439         isViewOnce INTEGER,
 440         sourceServiceId TEXT, serverGuid STRING NULL, sourceDevice INTEGER, storyId STRING, isStory INTEGER
 441         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (type IS 'story'), isChangeCreatedByUs INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, isTimerChangeFromSync INTEGER
 442         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 443           json_extract(json, '$.expirationTimerUpdate.fromSync') IS 1
 444         ), seenStatus NUMBER default 0, storyDistributionListId STRING, expiresAt INT
 445         GENERATED ALWAYS
 446         AS (ifnull(
 447           expirationStartTimestamp + (expireTimer * 1000),
 448           9007199254740991
 449         )), shouldAffectActivity INTEGER
 450         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 451           type IS NULL
 452           OR
 453           type NOT IN (
 454             'change-number-notification',
 455             'contact-removed-notification',
 456             'conversation-merge',
 457             'group-v1-migration',
 458             'keychange',
 459             'message-history-unsynced',
 460             'profile-change',
 461             'story',
 462             'universal-timer-notification',
 463             'verified-change'
 464           )
 465         ), shouldAffectPreview INTEGER
 466         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 467           type IS NULL
 468           OR
 469           type NOT IN (
 470             'change-number-notification',
 471             'contact-removed-notification',
 472             'conversation-merge',
 473             'group-v1-migration',
 474             'keychange',
 475             'message-history-unsynced',
 476             'profile-change',
 477             'story',
 478             'universal-timer-notification',
 479             'verified-change'
 480           )
 481         ), isUserInitiatedMessage INTEGER
 482         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 483           type IS NULL
 484           OR
 485           type NOT IN (
 486             'change-number-notification',
 487             'contact-removed-notification',
 488             'conversation-merge',
 489             'group-v1-migration',
 490             'group-v2-change',
 491             'keychange',
 492             'message-history-unsynced',
 493             'profile-change',
 494             'story',
 495             'universal-timer-notification',
 496             'verified-change'
 497           )
 498         ), mentionsMe INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, isGroupLeaveEvent INTEGER
 499         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 500           type IS 'group-v2-change' AND
 501           json_array_length(json_extract(json, '$.groupV2Change.details')) IS 1 AND
 502           json_extract(json, '$.groupV2Change.details[0].type') IS 'member-remove' AND
 503           json_extract(json, '$.groupV2Change.from') IS NOT NULL AND
 504           json_extract(json, '$.groupV2Change.from') IS json_extract(json, '$.groupV2Change.details[0].aci')
 505         ), isGroupLeaveEventFromOther INTEGER
 506         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 507           isGroupLeaveEvent IS 1
 508           AND
 509           isChangeCreatedByUs IS 0
 510         ), callId TEXT
 511         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
 512           json_extract(json, '$.callId')
 513         ));
 514 CREATE TABLE sqlite_stat4(tbl,idx,neq,nlt,ndlt,sample);
 515 CREATE TABLE jobs(
 516         id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 517         queueType TEXT STRING NOT NULL,
 518         timestamp INTEGER NOT NULL,
 519         data STRING TEXT
 520       );
 521 CREATE TABLE reactions(
 522         conversationId STRING,
 523         emoji STRING,
 524         fromId STRING,
 525         messageReceivedAt INTEGER,
 526         targetAuthorAci STRING,
 527         targetTimestamp INTEGER,
 528         unread INTEGER
 529       , messageId STRING);
 530 CREATE TABLE senderKeys(
 531         id TEXT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
 532         senderId TEXT NOT NULL,
 533         distributionId TEXT NOT NULL,
 534         data BLOB NOT NULL,
 535         lastUpdatedDate NUMBER NOT NULL
 536       );
 537 CREATE TABLE unprocessed(
 538         id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 539         timestamp INTEGER,
 540         version INTEGER,
 541         attempts INTEGER,
 542         envelope TEXT,
 543         decrypted TEXT,
 544         source TEXT,
 545         serverTimestamp INTEGER,
 546         sourceServiceId STRING
 547       , serverGuid STRING NULL, sourceDevice INTEGER, receivedAtCounter INTEGER, urgent INTEGER, story INTEGER);
 548 CREATE TABLE sendLogPayloads(
 549         id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 550
 551         timestamp INTEGER NOT NULL,
 552         contentHint INTEGER NOT NULL,
 553         proto BLOB NOT NULL
 554       , urgent INTEGER, hasPniSignatureMessage INTEGER DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL);
 555 CREATE TABLE sendLogRecipients(
 556         payloadId INTEGER NOT NULL,
 557
 558         recipientServiceId STRING NOT NULL,
 559         deviceId INTEGER NOT NULL,
 560
 561         PRIMARY KEY (payloadId, recipientServiceId, deviceId),
 562
 563         CONSTRAINT sendLogRecipientsForeignKey
 564           FOREIGN KEY (payloadId)
 565           REFERENCES sendLogPayloads(id)
 566           ON DELETE CASCADE
 567       );
 568 CREATE TABLE sendLogMessageIds(
 569         payloadId INTEGER NOT NULL,
 570
 571         messageId STRING NOT NULL,
 572
 573         PRIMARY KEY (payloadId, messageId),
 574
 575         CONSTRAINT sendLogMessageIdsForeignKey
 576           FOREIGN KEY (payloadId)
 577           REFERENCES sendLogPayloads(id)
 578           ON DELETE CASCADE
 579       );
 580 CREATE TABLE preKeys(
 581         id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 582         json TEXT
 583       , ourServiceId NUMBER
 584         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (json_extract(json, '$.ourServiceId')));
 585 CREATE TABLE signedPreKeys(
 586         id STRING PRIMARY KEY ASC,
 587         json TEXT
 588       , ourServiceId NUMBER
 589         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (json_extract(json, '$.ourServiceId')));
 590 CREATE TABLE badges(
 591         id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 592         category TEXT NOT NULL,
 593         name TEXT NOT NULL,
 594         descriptionTemplate TEXT NOT NULL
 595       );
 596 CREATE TABLE badgeImageFiles(
 597         badgeId TEXT REFERENCES badges(id)
 598           ON DELETE CASCADE
 599           ON UPDATE CASCADE,
 600         'order' INTEGER NOT NULL,
 601         url TEXT NOT NULL,
 602         localPath TEXT,
 603         theme TEXT NOT NULL
 604       );
 605 CREATE TABLE storyReads (
 606         authorId STRING NOT NULL,
 607         conversationId STRING NOT NULL,
 608         storyId STRING NOT NULL,
 609         storyReadDate NUMBER NOT NULL,
 610
 611         PRIMARY KEY (authorId, storyId)
 612       );
 613 CREATE TABLE storyDistributions(
 614         id STRING PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
 615         name TEXT,
 616
 617         senderKeyInfoJson STRING
 618       , deletedAtTimestamp INTEGER, allowsReplies INTEGER, isBlockList INTEGER, storageID STRING, storageVersion INTEGER, storageUnknownFields BLOB, storageNeedsSync INTEGER);
 619 CREATE TABLE storyDistributionMembers(
 620         listId STRING NOT NULL REFERENCES storyDistributions(id)
 621           ON DELETE CASCADE
 622           ON UPDATE CASCADE,
 623         serviceId STRING NOT NULL,
 624
 625         PRIMARY KEY (listId, serviceId)
 626       );
 627 CREATE TABLE uninstalled_sticker_packs (
 628         id STRING NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
 629         uninstalledAt NUMBER NOT NULL,
 630         storageID STRING,
 631         storageVersion NUMBER,
 632         storageUnknownFields BLOB,
 633         storageNeedsSync INTEGER NOT NULL
 634       );
 635 CREATE TABLE groupCallRingCancellations(
 636         ringId INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
 637         createdAt INTEGER NOT NULL
 638       );
 639 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'messages_fts_data'(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, block BLOB);
 640 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'messages_fts_idx'(segid, term, pgno, PRIMARY KEY(segid, term)) WITHOUT ROWID;
 641 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'messages_fts_content'(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, c0);
 642 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'messages_fts_docsize'(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, sz BLOB);
 643 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'messages_fts_config'(k PRIMARY KEY, v) WITHOUT ROWID;
 644 CREATE TABLE edited_messages(
 645         messageId STRING REFERENCES messages(id)
 646           ON DELETE CASCADE,
 647         sentAt INTEGER,
 648         readStatus INTEGER
 649       , conversationId STRING);
 650 CREATE TABLE mentions (
 651         messageId REFERENCES messages(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
 652         mentionAci STRING,
 653         start INTEGER,
 654         length INTEGER
 655       );
 656 CREATE TABLE kyberPreKeys(
 657         id STRING PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
 658         json TEXT NOT NULL, ourServiceId NUMBER
 659         GENERATED ALWAYS AS (json_extract(json, '$.ourServiceId')));
 660 CREATE TABLE callsHistory (
 661         callId TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 662         peerId TEXT NOT NULL, -- conversation id (legacy) | uuid | groupId | roomId
 663         ringerId TEXT DEFAULT NULL, -- ringer uuid
 664         mode TEXT NOT NULL, -- enum "Direct" | "Group"
 665         type TEXT NOT NULL, -- enum "Audio" | "Video" | "Group"
 666         direction TEXT NOT NULL, -- enum "Incoming" | "Outgoing
 667         -- Direct: enum "Pending" | "Missed" | "Accepted" | "Deleted"
 668         -- Group: enum "GenericGroupCall" | "OutgoingRing" | "Ringing" | "Joined" | "Missed" | "Declined" | "Accepted" | "Deleted"
 669         status TEXT NOT NULL,
 670         timestamp INTEGER NOT NULL,
 671         UNIQUE (callId, peerId) ON CONFLICT FAIL
 672       );
 673 [ dropped all indexes to save space in this blog post ]
 674 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_view_once_update AFTER UPDATE ON messages
 675       WHEN
 676         new.body IS NOT NULL AND new.isViewOnce = 1
 677       BEGIN
 678         DELETE FROM messages_fts WHERE rowid = old.rowid;
 679       END;
 680 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_insert AFTER INSERT ON messages
 681       WHEN new.isViewOnce IS NOT 1 AND new.storyId IS NULL
 682       BEGIN
 683         INSERT INTO messages_fts
 684           (rowid, body)
 685         VALUES
 686           (new.rowid, new.body);
 687       END;
 688 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_delete AFTER DELETE ON messages BEGIN
 689         DELETE FROM messages_fts WHERE rowid = old.rowid;
 690         DELETE FROM sendLogPayloads WHERE id IN (
 691           SELECT payloadId FROM sendLogMessageIds
 692           WHERE messageId = old.id
 693         );
 694         DELETE FROM reactions WHERE rowid IN (
 695           SELECT rowid FROM reactions
 696           WHERE messageId = old.id
 697         );
 698         DELETE FROM storyReads WHERE storyId = old.storyId;
 699       END;
 700 CREATE VIRTUAL TABLE messages_fts USING fts5(
 701         body,
 702         tokenize = 'signal_tokenizer'
 703       );
 704 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_update AFTER UPDATE ON messages
 705       WHEN
 706         (new.body IS NULL OR old.body IS NOT new.body) AND
 707          new.isViewOnce IS NOT 1 AND new.storyId IS NULL
 708       BEGIN
 709         DELETE FROM messages_fts WHERE rowid = old.rowid;
 710         INSERT INTO messages_fts
 711           (rowid, body)
 712         VALUES
 713           (new.rowid, new.body);
 714       END;
 715 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_insert_insert_mentions AFTER INSERT ON messages
 716       BEGIN
 717         INSERT INTO mentions (messageId, mentionAci, start, length)
 718
 719     SELECT messages.id, bodyRanges.value ->> 'mentionAci' as mentionAci,
 720       bodyRanges.value ->> 'start' as start,
 721       bodyRanges.value ->> 'length' as length
 722     FROM messages, json_each(messages.json ->> 'bodyRanges') as bodyRanges
 723     WHERE bodyRanges.value ->> 'mentionAci' IS NOT NULL
 724
 725         AND messages.id = new.id;
 726       END;
 727 CREATE TRIGGER messages_on_update_update_mentions AFTER UPDATE ON messages
 728       BEGIN
 729         DELETE FROM mentions WHERE messageId = new.id;
 730         INSERT INTO mentions (messageId, mentionAci, start, length)
 731
 732     SELECT messages.id, bodyRanges.value ->> 'mentionAci' as mentionAci,
 733       bodyRanges.value ->> 'start' as start,
 734       bodyRanges.value ->> 'length' as length
 735     FROM messages, json_each(messages.json ->> 'bodyRanges') as bodyRanges
 736     WHERE bodyRanges.value ->> 'mentionAci' IS NOT NULL
 737
 738         AND messages.id = new.id;
 739       END;
 740 sqlite>
 741 </pre>
 742
 743 <p>Finally I have the tool needed to inspect and process Signal
 744 messages that I need, without using the vendor provided client.  Now
 745 on to transforming it to a more useful format.</p>
 746
 747 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 748 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 749 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 750
 751       </div>
 752       <div class="tags">
 753
 754
 755         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 756
 757
 758       </div>
 759     </div>
 760     <div class="padding"></div>
 761
 762     <div class="entry">
 763       <div class="title">
 764         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_17.html">New chrpath release 0.17</a>
 765       </div>
 766       <div class="date">
 767         10th November 2023
 768       </div>
 769       <div class="body">
 770         <p>The chrpath package provide a simple command line tool to remove or
 771 modify the rpath or runpath of compiled ELF program.  It is almost 10
 772 years since I updated the code base, but I stumbled over the tool
 773 today, and decided it was time to move the code base from Subversion
 774 to git and find a new home for it, as the previous one (Debian Alioth)
 775 has been shut down.  I decided to go with
 776 <a href="https://codeberg.org/">Codeberg</a> this time, as it is my git
 777 service of choice these days, did a quick and dirty migration to git
 778 and updated the code with a few patches I found in the Debian bug
 779 tracker.  These are the release notes:</p>
 780
 781 <p>New in 0.17 released 2023-11-10:</p>
 782
 783 <ul>
 784 <li>Moved project to Codeberg, as Alioth is shut down.</li>
 785 <li>Add Solaris support (use &lt;sys/byteorder.h> instead of &lt;byteswap.h>).
 786    Patch from Rainer Orth.</li>
 787 <li>Added missing newline from printf() line.  Patch from Frank Dana.</li>
 788 <li>Corrected handling of multiple ELF sections. Patch from Frank Dana.</li>
 789 <li>Updated build rules for .deb.  Partly based on patch from djcj.</li>
 790 </ul>
 791
 792 <p>The latest edition is tagged and available from
 793 <a href="https://codeberg.org/pere/chrpath">https://codeberg.org/pere/chrpath</a>.
 794
 795 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 796 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 797 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 798
 799       </div>
 800       <div class="tags">
 801
 802
 803         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 804
 805
 806       </div>
 807     </div>
 808     <div class="padding"></div>
 809
 810     <div class="entry">
 811       <div class="title">
 812         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Test_framework_for_DocBook_processors___formatters.html">Test framework for DocBook processors / formatters</a>
 813       </div>
 814       <div class="date">
 815          5th November 2023
 816       </div>
 817       <div class="body">
 818         <p>All the books I have published so far has been using
 819 <a href="https://docbook.org/">DocBook</a> somewhere in the process.
 820 For the first book, the source format was DocBook, while for every
 821 later book it was an intermediate format used as the stepping stone to
 822 be able to present the same manuscript in several formats, on paper,
 823 as ebook in ePub format, as a HTML page and as a PDF file either for
 824 paper production or for Internet consumption.  This is made possible
 825 with a wide variety of free software tools with DocBook support in
 826 Debian.  The source format of later books have been docx via rst,
 827 Markdown, Filemaker and Asciidoc, and for all of these I was able to
 828 generate a suitable DocBook file for further processing using
 829 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pandoc">pandoc</a>,
 830 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/asciidoc">a2x</a> and
 831 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/asciidoctor">asciidoctor</a>,
 832 as well as rendering using
 833 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/xmlto">xmlto</a>,
 834 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dbtoepub">dbtoepub</a>,
 835 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dblatex">dblatex</a>,
 836 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/docbook-xsl">docbook-xsl</a> and
 837 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fop">fop</a>.</p>
 838
 839 <p>Most of the <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/publisher/">books I
 840 have published</a> are translated books, with English as the source
 841 language.  The use of
 842 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/po4a">po4a</a> to
 843 handle translations using the gettext PO format has been a blessing,
 844 but publishing translated books had triggered the need to ensure the
 845 DocBook tools handle relevant languages correctly.  For every new
 846 language I have published, I had to submit patches dblatex, dbtoepub
 847 and docbook-xsl fixing incorrect language and country specific issues
 848 in the framework themselves.  Typically this has been missing keywords
 849 like 'figure' or sort ordering of index entries.  After a while it
 850 became tiresome to only discover issues like this by accident, and I
 851 decided to write a DocBook "test framework" exercising various
 852 features of DocBook and allowing me to see all features exercised for
 853 a given language.  It consist of a set of DocBook files, a version 4
 854 book, a version 5 book, a v4 book set, a v4 selection of problematic
 855 tables, one v4 testing sidefloat and finally one v4 testing a book of
 856 articles.  The DocBook files are accompanied with a set of build rules
 857 for building PDF using dblatex and docbook-xsl/fop, HTML using xmlto
 858 or docbook-xsl and epub using dbtoepub.  The result is a set of files
 859 visualizing footnotes, indexes, table of content list, figures,
 860 formulas and other DocBook features, allowing for a quick review on
 861 the completeness of the given locale settings.  To build with a
 862 different language setting, all one need to do is edit the lang= value
 863 in the .xml file to pick a different ISO 639 code value and run
 864 'make'.</p>
 865
 866 <p>The <a href="https://codeberg.org/pere/docbook-example/">test framework
 867 source code</a> is available from Codeberg, and a generated set of
 868 presentations of the various examples is available as Codeberg static
 869 web pages at
 870 <a href="https://pere.codeberg.page/docbook-example/">https://pere.codeberg.page/docbook-example/</a>.
 871 Using this test framework I have been able to discover and report
 872 several bugs and missing features in various tools, and got a lot of
 873 them fixed.  For example I got Northern Sami keywords added to both
 874 docbook-xsl and dblatex, fixed several typos in Norwegian bokmål and
 875 Norwegian Nynorsk, support for non-ascii title IDs added to pandoc,
 876 Norwegian index sorting support fixed in xindy and initial Norwegian
 877 Bokmål support added to dblatex.  Some issues still remains, though.
 878 Default index sorting rules are still broken in several tools, so the
 879 Norwegian letters æ, ø and å are more often than not sorted properly
 880 in the book index.</p>
 881
 882 <p>The test framework recently received some more polish, as part of
 883 publishing my latest book.  This book contained a lot of fairly
 884 complex tables, which exposed bugs in some of the tools.  This made me
 885 add a new test file with various tables, as well as spend some time to
 886 brush up the build rules.  My goal is for the test framework to
 887 exercise all DocBook features to make it easier to see which features
 888 work with different processors, and hopefully get them all to support
 889 the full set of DocBook features.  Feel free to send patches to extend
 890 the test set, and test it with your favorite DocBook processor.
 891 Please visit these two URLs to learn more:</p>
 892
 893 <ul>
 894 <li><a href="https://codeberg.org/pere/docbook-example/">https://codeberg.org/pere/docbook-example/</a></li>
 895 <li><a href="https://pere.codeberg.page/docbook-example/">https://pere.codeberg.page/docbook-example/</a></li>
 896 </ul>
 897
 898 <p>If you want to learn more on Docbook and translations, I recommend
 899 having a look at the <a href="https://docbook.org/">the DocBook
 900 web site</a>,
 901 <a href="https://doccookbook.sourceforge.net/html/en/">the DoCookBook
 902 site<a/> and my earlier blog post on
 903 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">how
 904 the Skolelinux project process and translate documentation</a>,  a talk I gave earlier this year on
 905 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20230314-oversetting-og-publisering-av-b%c3%b8ker-med-fri-programvare/">how
 906 to translate and publish books using free software</a> (Norwegian
 907 only).</p>
 908
 909 <!--
 910
 911 https://github.com/docbook/xslt10-stylesheets/issues/205 (docbook-xsl: sme support)
 912 https://bugs.debian.org/968437 (xindy: index sorting rules for nb/nn)
 913 https://bugs.debian.org/856123 (pandoc: markdown to docbook with non-english titles)
 914 https://bugs.debian.org/864813 (dblatex: missing nb words)
 915 https://bugs.debian.org/756386 (dblatex: index sorting rules for nb/nn)
 916 https://bugs.debian.org/796871 (dbtoepub: index sorting rules for nb/nn)
 917 https://bugs.debian.org/792616 (dblatex: PDF metadata)
 918 https://bugs.debian.org/686908 (docbook-xsl: index sorting rules for nb/nn)
 919 https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=373747&aid=3556630&group_id=21935 (docbook-xsl: nb/nn support)
 920 https://bugs.debian.org/684391 (dblatex: initial nb support)
 921
 922 -->
 923
 924 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 925 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 926 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 927
 928       </div>
 929       <div class="tags">
 930
 931
 932         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 933
 934
 935       </div>
 936     </div>
 937     <div class="padding"></div>
 938
 939     <div class="entry">
 940       <div class="title">
 941         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_did_I_learn_from_OpenSnitch_this_summer_.html">What did I learn from OpenSnitch this summer?</a>
 942       </div>
 943       <div class="date">
 944         11th June 2023
 945       </div>
 946       <div class="body">
 947         <p>With yesterdays
 948 <a href="https://www.debian.org/News/2023/20230610">release of Debian
 949 12 Bookworm</a>, I am happy to know the
 950 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/opensnitch">the interactive
 951 application firewall OpenSnitch</a> is available for a wider audience.
 952 I have been running it for a few weeks now, and have been surprised
 953 about some of the programs connecting to the Internet.  Some programs
 954 are obviously calling out from my machine, like the NTP network based
 955 clock adjusting system and Tor to reach other Tor clients, but others
 956 were more dubious.  For example, the KDE Window manager try to look up
 957 the host name in DNS, for no apparent reason, but if this lookup is
 958 blocked the KDE desktop get periodically stuck when I use it.  Another
 959 surprise was how much Firefox call home directly to mozilla.com,
 960 mozilla.net and googleapis.com, to mention a few, when I visit other
 961 web pages.  This direct connection happen even if I told Firefox to
 962 always use a proxy, and the proxy setting is ignored for this traffic.
 963 Other surprising connections come from audacity and dirmngr (I do not
 964 use Gnome).  It took some trial and error to get a good default set of
 965 permissions.  Without it, I would get popups asking for permissions at
 966 any time, also the most inconvenient ones where I am in the middle of
 967 a time sensitive gaming session.</p>
 968
 969 <p>I suspect some application developers should rethink when then need
 970 to use network connections or DNS lookups, and recommend testing
 971 OpenSnitch (only <tt>apt install opensnitch</tt> away in Debian
 972 Bookworm) to locate and report any surprising Internet connections on
 973 your desktop machine.</p>
 974
 975 <p>At the moment the upstream developer and Debian package maintainer
 976 is working on making the system more reliable in Debian, by enabling
 977 the eBPF kernel module to track processes and connections instead of
 978 depending in content in /proc/.  This should enter unstable fairly
 979 soon.</p>
 980
 981 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 982 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 983 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 984
 985 <p><strong>Update 2023-06-12</strong>: I got a tip about
 986 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/PrivacyIssues">a list of privacy
 987 issues in Free Software</a> and the
 988 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-privacy">#debian-privacy IRC
 989 channel</a> discussing these topics.</p>
 990
 991
 992       </div>
 993       <div class="tags">
 994
 995
 996         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opensnitch">opensnitch</a>.
 997
 998
 999       </div>
1000     </div>
1001     <div class="padding"></div>
1002
1003     <div class="entry">
1004       <div class="title">
1005         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/wmbusmeters__parse_data_from_your_utility_meter___nice_free_software.html">wmbusmeters, parse data from your utility meter - nice free software</a>
1006       </div>
1007       <div class="date">
1008         19th May 2023
1009       </div>
1010       <div class="body">
1011         <p>There is a European standard for reading utility meters like water,
1012 gas, electricity or heat distribution meters.  The
1013 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter-Bus">Meter-Bus standard
1014 (EN 13757-2, EN 13757-3 and EN 13757–4)</a> provide a cross vendor way
1015 to talk to and collect meter data.  I ran into this standard when I
1016 wanted to monitor some heat distribution meters, and managed to find
1017 free software that could do the job.  The meters in question broadcast
1018 encrypted messages with meter information via radio, and the hardest
1019 part was to track down the encryption keys from the vendor.  With this
1020 in place I could set up a MQTT gateway to submit the meter data for
1021 graphing.</p>
1022
1023 <p>The free software systems in question,
1024 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/rtl-wmbus">rtl-wmbus</a> to
1025 read the messages from a software defined radio, and
1026 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/wmbusmeters">wmbusmeters</a> to
1027 decrypt and decode the content of the messages, is working very well
1028 and allowe me to get frequent updates from my meters.  I got in touch
1029 with upstream last year to see if there was any interest in publishing
1030 the packages via Debian.  I was very happy to learn that Fredrik
1031 Öhrström volunteered to maintain the packages, and I have since
1032 assisted him in getting Debian package build rules in place as well as
1033 sponsoring the packages into the Debian archive.  Sadly we completed
1034 it too late for them to become part of the next stable Debian release
1035 (Bookworm).  The wmbusmeters package just cleared the NEW queue.  It
1036 will need some work to fix a built problem, but I expect Fredrik will
1037 find a solution soon.</p>
1038
1039 <p>If you got a infrastructure meter supporting the Meter Bus
1040 standard, I strongly recommend having a look at these nice
1041 packages.</p>
1042
1043 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1044 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1045 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1046
1047       </div>
1048       <div class="tags">
1049
1050
1051         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1052
1053
1054       </div>
1055     </div>
1056     <div class="padding"></div>
1057
1058     <div class="entry">
1059       <div class="title">
1060         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_2023_LinuxCNC_Norwegian_developer_gathering.html">The 2023 LinuxCNC Norwegian developer gathering</a>
1061       </div>
1062       <div class="date">
1063         14th May 2023
1064       </div>
1065       <div class="body">
1066         <p>The LinuxCNC project is making headway these days.  A lot of
1067 patches and issues have seen activity on
1068 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/">the project github
1069 pages</a> recently.  A few weeks ago there was a developer gathering
1070 over at the <a href="https://tormach.com/">Tormach</a> headquarter in
1071 Wisconsin, and now we are planning a new gathering in Norway.  If you
1072 wonder what LinuxCNC is, lets quote Wikipedia:</p>
1073
1074 <blockquote>
1075 "LinuxCNC is a software system for numerical control of
1076 machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma cutters, routers,
1077 cutting machines, robots and hexapods. It can control up to 9 axes or
1078 joints of a CNC machine using G-code (RS-274NGC) as input. It has
1079 several GUIs suited to specific kinds of usage (touch screen,
1080 interactive development)."
1081 </blockquote>
1082
1083 <p>The Norwegian developer gathering take place the weekend June 16th
1084 to 18th this year, and is open for everyone interested in contributing
1085 to LinuxCNC.  Up to date information about the gathering can be found
1086 in
1087 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/emc/mailman/emc-developers/thread/sa64jp06nob.fsf%40hjemme.reinholdtsen.name/#msg37837251">the
1088 developer mailing list thread</a> where the gathering was announced.
1089 Thanks to the good people at
1090 <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>,
1091 <a href="https://www.redpill-linpro.com/">Redpill-Linpro</a> and
1092 <a href="https://www.nuugfoundation.no/no/">NUUG Foundation</a>, we
1093 have enough sponsor funds to pay for food, and shelter for the people
1094 traveling from afar to join us.  If you would like to join the
1095 gathering, get in touch.</p>
1096
1097 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1098 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1099 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1100
1101       </div>
1102       <div class="tags">
1103
1104
1105         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>.
1106
1107
1108       </div>
1109     </div>
1110     <div class="padding"></div>
1111
1112     <div class="entry">
1113       <div class="title">
1114         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenSnitch_in_Debian_ready_for_prime_time.html">OpenSnitch in Debian ready for prime time</a>
1115       </div>
1116       <div class="date">
1117         13th May 2023
1118       </div>
1119       <div class="body">
1120         <p>A bit delayed,
1121 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/opensnitch">the interactive
1122 application firewall OpenSnitch</a> package in Debian now got the
1123 latest fixes ready for Debian Bookworm.  Because it depend on a
1124 package missing on some architectures, the autopkgtest check of the
1125 testing migration script did not understand that the tests were
1126 actually working, so the migration was delayed.  A bug in the package
1127 dependencies is also fixed, so those installing the firewall package
1128 (opensnitch) now also get the GUI admin tool (python3-opensnitch-ui)
1129 installed by default.  I am very grateful to Gustavo Iñiguez Goya for
1130 his work on getting the package ready for Debian Bookworm.</p>
1131
1132 <p>Armed with this package I have discovered some surprising
1133 connections from programs I believed were able to work completly
1134 offline, and it has already proven its worth, at least to me.  If you
1135 too want to get more familiar with the kind of programs using
1136 Internett connections on your machine, I recommend testing <tt>apt
1137 install opensnitch</tt> in Bookworm and see what you think.</p>
1138
1139 <p>The package is still not able to build its eBPF module within
1140 Debian.  Not sure how much work it would be to get it working, but
1141 suspect some kernel related packages need to be extended with more
1142 header files to get it working.</p>
1143
1144 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1145 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1146 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1147
1148       </div>
1149       <div class="tags">
1150
1151
1152         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opensnitch">opensnitch</a>.
1153
1154
1155       </div>
1156     </div>
1157     <div class="padding"></div>
1158
1159     <div class="entry">
1160       <div class="title">
1161         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speech_to_text__she_APTly_whispered__how_hard_can_it_be_.html">Speech to text, she APTly whispered, how hard can it be?</a>
1162       </div>
1163       <div class="date">
1164         23rd April 2023
1165       </div>
1166       <div class="body">
1167         <p>While visiting a convention during Easter, it occurred to me that
1168 it would be great if I could have a digital Dictaphone with
1169 transcribing capabilities, providing me with texts to cut-n-paste into
1170 stuff I need to write.  The background is that long drives often bring
1171 up the urge to write on texts I am working on, which of course is out
1172 of the question while driving.  With the release of
1173 <a href="https://github.com/openai/whisper/">OpenAI Whisper</a>, this
1174 seem to be within reach with Free Software, so I decided to give it a
1175 go.  OpenAI Whisper is a Linux based neural network system to read in
1176 audio files and provide text representation of the speech in that
1177 audio recording.  It handle multiple languages and according to its
1178 creators even can translate into a different language than the spoken
1179 one.  I have not tested the latter feature.  It can either use the CPU
1180 or a GPU with CUDA support.  As far as I can tell, CUDA in practice
1181 limit that feature to NVidia graphics cards.  I have few of those, as
1182 they do not work great with free software drivers, and have not tested
1183 the GPU option.  While looking into the matter, I did discover some
1184 work to provide CUDA support on non-NVidia GPUs, and some work with
1185 the library used by Whisper to port it to other GPUs, but have not
1186 spent much time looking into GPU support yet.  I've so far used an old
1187 X220 laptop as my test machine, and only transcribed using its
1188 CPU.</p>
1189
1190 <p>As it from a privacy standpoint is unthinkable to use computers
1191 under control of someone else (aka a "cloud" service) to transcribe
1192 ones thoughts and personal notes, I want to run the transcribing
1193 system locally on my own computers.  The only sensible approach to me
1194 is to make the effort I put into this available for any Linux user and
1195 to upload the needed packages into Debian.  Looking at Debian Bookworm, I
1196 discovered that only three packages were missing,
1197 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1034307">tiktoken</a>,
1198 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1034144">triton</a>, and
1199 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1034091">openai-whisper</a>.  For a while
1200 I also believed
1201 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1034286">ffmpeg-python</a> was
1202 needed, but as its
1203 <a href="https://github.com/kkroening/ffmpeg-python/issues/760">upstream
1204 seem to have vanished</a> I found it safer
1205 <a href="https://github.com/openai/whisper/pull/1242">to rewrite
1206 whisper</a> to stop depending on in than to introduce ffmpeg-python
1207 into Debian.  I decided to place these packages under the umbrella of
1208 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/deeplearning-team">the Debian Deep
1209 Learning Team</a>, which seem like the best team to look after such
1210 packages.  Discussing the topic within the group also made me aware
1211 that the triton package was already a future dependency of newer
1212 versions of the torch package being planned, and would be needed after
1213 Bookworm is released.</p>
1214
1215 <p>All required code packages have been now waiting in
1216 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the Debian NEW
1217 queue</a> since Wednesday, heading for Debian Experimental until
1218 Bookworm is released.  An unsolved issue is how to handle the neural
1219 network models used by Whisper.  The default behaviour of Whisper is
1220 to require Internet connectivity and download the model requested to
1221 <tt>~/.cache/whisper/</tt> on first invocation.  This obviously would
1222 fail <a href="https://people.debian.org/~bap/dfsg-faq.html">the
1223 deserted island test of free software</a> as the Debian packages would
1224 be unusable for someone stranded with only the Debian archive and solar
1225 powered computer on a deserted island.</p>
1226
1227 <p>Because of this, I would love to include the models in the Debian
1228 mirror system.  This is problematic, as the models are very large
1229 files, which would put a heavy strain on the Debian mirror
1230 infrastructure around the globe.  The strain would be even higher if
1231 the models change often, which luckily as far as I can tell they do
1232 not.  The small model, which according to its creator is most useful
1233 for English and in my experience is not doing a great job there
1234 either, is 462 MiB (deb is 414 MiB).  The medium model, which to me
1235 seem to handle English speech fairly well is 1.5 GiB (deb is 1.3 GiB)
1236 and the large model is 2.9 GiB (deb is 2.6 GiB).  I would assume
1237 everyone with enough resources would prefer to use the large model for
1238 highest quality.  I believe the models themselves would have to go
1239 into the non-free part of the Debian archive, as they are not really
1240 including any useful source code for updating the models.  The
1241 "source", aka the model training set, according to the creators
1242 consist of "680,000 hours of multilingual and multitask supervised
1243 data collected from the web", which to me reads material with both
1244 unknown copyright terms, unavailable to the general public.  In other
1245 words, the source is not available according to the Debian Free
1246 Software Guidelines and the model should be considered non-free.</p>
1247
1248 <p>I asked the Debian FTP masters for advice regarding uploading a
1249 model package on their IRC channel, and based on the feedback there it
1250 is still unclear to me if such package would be accepted into the
1251 archive.  In any case I wrote build rules for a
1252 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/deeplearning-team/openai-whisper-model">OpenAI
1253 Whisper model package</a> and
1254 <a href="https://github.com/openai/whisper/pull/1257">modified the
1255 Whisper code base</a> to prefer shared files under <tt>/usr/</tt> and
1256 <tt>/var/</tt> over user specific files in <tt>~/.cache/whisper/</tt>
1257 to be able to use these model packages, to prepare for such
1258 possibility.  One solution might be to include only one of the models
1259 (small or medium, I guess) in the Debian archive, and ask people to
1260 download the others from the Internet.  Not quite sure what to do
1261 here, and advice is most welcome (use the debian-ai mailing list).</p>
1262
1263 <p>To make it easier to test the new packages while I wait for them to
1264 clear the NEW queue, I created an APT source targeting bookworm.  I
1265 selected Bookworm instead of Bullseye, even though I know the latter
1266 would reach more users, is that some of the required dependencies are
1267 missing from Bullseye and I during this phase of testing did not want
1268 to backport a lot of packages just to get up and running.</p>
1269
1270 <p>Here is a recipe to run as user root if you want to test OpenAI
1271 Whisper using Debian packages on your Debian Bookworm installation,
1272 first adding the APT repository GPG key to the list of trusted keys,
1273 then setting up the APT repository and finally installing the packages
1274 and one of the models:</p>
1275
1276 <p><pre>
1277 curl https://geekbay.nuug.no/~pere/openai-whisper/D78F5C4796F353D211B119E28200D9B589641240.asc \
1278   -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/pere-whisper.asc
1279 mkdir -p /etc/apt/sources.list.d
1280 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pere-whisper.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1281 deb https://geekbay.nuug.no/~pere/openai-whisper/ bookworm main
1282 deb-src https://geekbay.nuug.no/~pere/openai-whisper/ bookworm main
1283 EOF
1284 apt update
1285 apt install openai-whisper
1286 </pre></p>
1287
1288 <p>The package work for me, but have not yet been tested on any other
1289 computer than my own.  With it, I have been able to (badly) transcribe
1290 a 2 minute 40 second Norwegian audio clip to test using the small
1291 model.  This took 11 minutes and around 2.2 GiB of RAM.  Transcribing
1292 the same file with the medium model gave a accurate text in 77 minutes
1293 using around 5.2 GiB of RAM.  My test machine had too little memory to
1294 test the large model, which I believe require 11 GiB of RAM.  In
1295 short, this now work for me using Debian packages, and I hope it will
1296 for you and everyone else once the packages enter Debian.</p>
1297
1298 <p>Now I can start on the audio recording part of this project.</p>
1299
1300 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1301 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1302 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1303
1304       </div>
1305       <div class="tags">
1306
1307
1308         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1309
1310
1311       </div>
1312     </div>
1313     <div class="padding"></div>
1314
1315     <div class="entry">
1316       <div class="title">
1317         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/rtlsdr_scanner__software_defined_radio_frequency_scanner_for_Linux____nice_free_software.html">rtlsdr-scanner, software defined radio frequency scanner for Linux  - nice free software</a>
1318       </div>
1319       <div class="date">
1320          7th April 2023
1321       </div>
1322       <div class="body">
1323         <p>Today I finally found time to track down a useful radio frequency
1324 scanner for my software defined radio.  Just for fun I tried to locate
1325 the radios used in the areas, and a good start would be to scan all
1326 the frequencies to see what is in use.  I've tried to find a useful
1327 program earlier, but ran out of time before I managed to find a useful
1328 tool.  This time I was more successful, and after a few false leads I
1329 found a description of
1330 <a href="https://www.kali.org/tools/rtlsdr-scanner/">rtlsdr-scanner
1331 over at the Kali site</a>, and was able to track down
1332 <a href="https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/packages/rtlsdr-scanner.git">the
1333 Kali package git repository</a> to build a deb package for the
1334 scanner.  Sadly the package is missing from the Debian project itself,
1335 at least in Debian Bullseye.  Two runtime dependencies,
1336 <a href="https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/packages/python-visvis.git">python-visvis</a>
1337 and
1338 <a href="https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/packages/python-rtlsdr.git">python-rtlsdr</a>
1339 had to be built and installed separately.  Luckily '<tt>gbp
1340 buildpackage</tt>' handled them just fine and no further packages had
1341 to be manually built.  The end result worked out of the box after
1342 installation.</p>
1343
1344 <p>My initial scans for FM channels worked just fine, so I knew the
1345 scanner was functioning.  But when I tried to scan every frequency
1346 from 100 to 1000 MHz, the program stopped unexpectedly near the
1347 completion.  After some debugging I discovered USB software radio I
1348 used rejected frequencies above 948 MHz, triggering a unreported
1349 exception breaking the scan.  Changing the scan to end at 957 worked
1350 better.  I similarly found the lower limit to be around 15, and ended
1351 up with the following full scan:</p>
1352
1353 <p><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2023-04-07-radio-freq-scanning.png"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2023-04-07-radio-freq-scanning.png" width="100%"></a></p>
1354
1355 <p>Saving the scan did not work, but exporting it as a CSV file worked
1356 just fine.  I ended up with around 477k CVS lines with dB level for
1357 the given frequency.</p>
1358
1359 <p>The save failure seem to be a missing UTF-8 encoding issue in the
1360 python code.  Will see if I can find time to send a patch
1361 <a href="https://github.com/CdeMills/RTLSDR-Scanner/">upstream</a>
1362 later to fix this exception:</p>
1363
1364 <pre>
1365 Traceback (most recent call last):
1366   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rtlsdr_scanner/main_window.py", line 485, in __on_save
1367     save_plot(fullName, self.scanInfo, self.spectrum, self.locations)
1368   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rtlsdr_scanner/file.py", line 408, in save_plot
1369     handle.write(json.dumps(data, indent=4))
1370 TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'
1371 Traceback (most recent call last):
1372   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rtlsdr_scanner/main_window.py", line 485, in __on_save
1373     save_plot(fullName, self.scanInfo, self.spectrum, self.locations)
1374   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rtlsdr_scanner/file.py", line 408, in save_plot
1375     handle.write(json.dumps(data, indent=4))
1376 TypeError: a bytes-like object is required, not 'str'
1377 </pre>
1378
1379 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1380 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1381 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1382
1383       </div>
1384       <div class="tags">
1385
1386
1387         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1388
1389
1390       </div>
1391     </div>
1392     <div class="padding"></div>
1393
1394     <div class="entry">
1395       <div class="title">
1396         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenSnitch_available_in_Debian_Sid_and_Bookworm.html">OpenSnitch available in Debian Sid and Bookworm</a>
1397       </div>
1398       <div class="date">
1399         25th February 2023
1400       </div>
1401       <div class="body">
1402         <p>Thanks to the efforts of the OpenSnitch lead developer Gustavo
1403 Iñiguez Goya allowing me to sponsor the upload,
1404 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/opensnitch">the interactive
1405 application firewall OpenSnitch</a> is now available in Debian
1406 Testing, soon to become the next stable release of Debian.</p>
1407
1408 <p>This is a package which set up a network firewall on one or more
1409 machines, which is controlled by a graphical user interface that will
1410 ask the user if a program should be allowed to connect to the local
1411 network or the Internet.  If some background daemon is trying to dial
1412 home, it can be blocked from doing so with a simple mouse click, or by
1413 default simply by not doing anything when the GUI question dialog pop
1414 up.  A list of all programs discovered using the network is provided
1415 in the GUI, giving the user an overview of how the machine(s) programs
1416 use the network.</p>
1417
1418 <p>OpenSnitch was uploaded for NEW processing about a month ago, and I
1419 had little hope of it getting accepted and shaping up in time for the
1420 package freeze, but the Debian ftpmasters proved to be amazingly quick
1421 at checking out the package and it was accepted into the archive about
1422 week after the first upload.  It is now team maintained under the Go
1423 language team umbrella.  A few fixes to the default setup is only in
1424 Sid, and should migrate to Testing/Bookworm in a week.</p>
1425
1426 <p>During testing I ran into an
1427 <a href="https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch/issues/813">issue
1428 with Minecraft server broadcasts disappearing</a>, which was quickly
1429 resolved by the developer with a patch and a proposed configuration
1430 change.  I've been told this was caused by the Debian packages default
1431 use if /proc/ information to track down kernel status, instead of the
1432 newer eBPF module that can be used.  The reason is simply that
1433 upstream and I have failed to find a way to build the eBPF modules for
1434 OpenSnitch without a complete configured Linux kernel source tree,
1435 which as far as we can tell is unavailable as a build dependency in
1436 Debian.  We tried unsuccessfully so far to use the kernel-headers
1437 package.  It would be great if someone could provide some clues how to
1438 build eBPF modules on build daemons in Debian, possibly without the full
1439 kernel source.</p>
1440
1441 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1442 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1443 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1444
1445       </div>
1446       <div class="tags">
1447
1448
1449         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opensnitch">opensnitch</a>.
1450
1451
1452       </div>
1453     </div>
1454     <div class="padding"></div>
1455
1456     <div class="entry">
1457       <div class="title">
1458         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_the_desktop_recommending_your_program_for_opening_its_files_.html">Is the desktop recommending your program for opening its files?</a>
1459       </div>
1460       <div class="date">
1461         29th January 2023
1462       </div>
1463       <div class="body">
1464         <p>Linux desktop systems
1465 <a href="https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html">have
1466 standardized</a> how programs present themselves to the desktop
1467 system.  If a package include a .desktop file in
1468 /usr/share/applications/, Gnome, KDE, LXDE, Xfce and the other desktop
1469 environments will pick up the file and use its content to generate the
1470 menu of available programs in the system.  A lesser known fact is that
1471 a package can also explain to the desktop system how to recognize the
1472 files created by the program in question, and use it to open these
1473 files on request, for example via a GUI file browser.</p>
1474
1475 <p>A while back I ran into a package that did not tell the desktop
1476 system how to recognize its files and was not used to open its files
1477 in the file browser and fixed it.  In the process I wrote a simple
1478 debian/tests/ script to ensure the setup keep working.  It might be
1479 useful for other packages too, to ensure any future version of the
1480 package keep handling its own files.</p>
1481
1482 <p>For this to work the file format need a useful MIME type that can
1483 be used to identify the format.  If the file format do not yet have a
1484 MIME type, it should define one and preferably also
1485 <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">register
1486 it with IANA</a> to ensure the MIME type string is reserved.</p>
1487
1488 <p>The script uses the <tt>xdg-mime</tt> program from xdg-utils to
1489 query the database of standardized package information and ensure it
1490 return sensible values.  It also need the location of an example file
1491 for xdg-mime to guess the format of.</p>
1492
1493 <pre>
1494 #!/bin/sh
1495 #
1496 # Author: Petter Reinholdtsen
1497 # License: GPL v2 or later at your choice.
1498 #
1499 # Validate the MIME setup, making sure motor types have
1500 # application/vnd.openmotor+yaml associated with them and is connected
1501 # to the openmotor desktop file.
1502
1503 retval=0
1504
1505 mimetype="application/vnd.openmotor+yaml"
1506 testfile="test/data/real/o3100/motor.ric"
1507 mydesktopfile="openmotor.desktop"
1508
1509 filemime="$(xdg-mime query filetype "$testfile")"
1510
1511 if [ "$mimetype" != "$filemime" ] ; then
1512     retval=1
1513     echo "error: xdg-mime claim motor file MIME type is $filemine, not $mimetype"
1514 else
1515     echo "success: xdg-mime report correct mime type $mimetype for motor file"
1516 fi
1517
1518 desktop=$(xdg-mime query default "$mimetype")
1519
1520 if [ "$mydesktopfile" != "$desktop" ]; then
1521     retval=1
1522     echo "error: xdg-mime claim motor file should be handled by $desktop, not $mydesktopfile"
1523 else
1524     echo "success: xdg-mime agree motor file should be handled by $mydesktopfile"
1525 fi
1526
1527 exit $retval
1528 </pre>
1529
1530 <p>It is a simple way to ensure your users are not very surprised when
1531 they try to open one of your file formats in their file browser.</p>
1532
1533 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1534 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1535 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1536
1537       </div>
1538       <div class="tags">
1539
1540
1541         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1542
1543
1544       </div>
1545     </div>
1546     <div class="padding"></div>
1547
1548     <div class="entry">
1549       <div class="title">
1550         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Opensnitch__the_application_level_interactive_firewall__heading_into_the_Debian_archive.html">Opensnitch, the application level interactive firewall, heading into the Debian archive</a>
1551       </div>
1552       <div class="date">
1553         22nd January 2023
1554       </div>
1555       <div class="body">
1556         <p>While reading a
1557 <a href="https://sneak.berlin/20230115/macos-scans-your-local-files-now/">blog
1558 post claiming MacOS X recently started scanning local files and
1559 reporting information about them to Apple</a>, even on a machine where
1560 all such callback features had been disabled, I came across a
1561 description of the Little Snitch application for MacOS X.  It seemed
1562 like a very nice tool to have in the tool box, and I decided to see if
1563 something similar was available for Linux.</p>
1564
1565 <p>It did not take long to find
1566 <a href="https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch">the OpenSnitch
1567 package</a>, which has been in development since 2017, and now is in
1568 version 1.5.0.  It has had a
1569 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/909567">request for Debian
1570 packaging</a> since 2018, but no-one completed the job so far.  Just
1571 for fun, I decided to see if I could help, and I was very happy to
1572 discover that
1573 <a href="https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch/issues/304">upstream
1574 want a Debian package too</a>.</p>
1575
1576 <p>After struggling a bit with getting the program to run, figuring
1577 out building Go programs (and a little failed detour to look at eBPF
1578 builds too - help needed), I am very happy to report that I am
1579 sponsoring upstream to maintain the package in Debian, and it has
1580 since this morning been waiting in NEW for the ftpmasters to have a
1581 look.  Perhaps it can get into the archive in time for the Bookworm
1582 release?</p>
1583
1584 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1585 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1586 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1587
1588       </div>
1589       <div class="tags">
1590
1591
1592         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opensnitch">opensnitch</a>.
1593
1594
1595       </div>
1596     </div>
1597     <div class="padding"></div>
1598
1599     <div class="entry">
1600       <div class="title">
1601         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LinuxCNC_MQTT_publisher_component.html">LinuxCNC MQTT publisher component</a>
1602       </div>
1603       <div class="date">
1604          8th January 2023
1605       </div>
1606       <div class="body">
1607         <p>I watched <a href="https://yewtu.be/watch?v=jmKUV3aNLjk">a 2015
1608 video from Andreas Schiffler</a> the other day, where he set up
1609 <a href="https://linuxcnc.org/">LinuxCNC</a> to send status
1610 information to the MQTT broker IBM Bluemix.  As I also use MQTT for
1611 graphing, it occured to me that a generic MQTT LinuxCNC component
1612 would be useful and I set out to implement it.  Today I got the first
1613 draft limping along and submitted as
1614 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/2253">a patch to the
1615 LinuxCNC project</a>.</p>
1616
1617 <p>The simple part was setting up the MQTT publishing code in Python.
1618 I already have set up other parts submitting data to my Mosquito MQTT
1619 broker, so I could reuse that code.  Writing a LinuxCNC component in
1620 Python as new to me, but using existing examples in the code
1621 repository and the extensive documentation, this was fairly straight
1622 forward.  The hardest part was creating a automated test for the
1623 component to ensure it was working.  Testing it in a simulated
1624 LinuxCNC machine proved very useful, as I discovered features I needed
1625 that I had not thought of yet, and adjusted the code quite a bit to
1626 make it easier to test without a operational MQTT broker
1627 available.</p>
1628
1629 <p>The draft is ready and working, but I am unsure which LinuxCNC HAL
1630 pins I should collect and publish by default (in other words, the
1631 default set of information pieces published), and how to get the
1632 machine name from the LinuxCNC INI file.  The latter is a minor
1633 detail, but I expect it would be useful in a setup with several
1634 machines available.  I am hoping for feedback from the experienced
1635 LinuxCNC developers and users, to make the component even better
1636 before it can go into the mainland LinuxCNC code base.</p>
1637
1638 <p>Since I started on the MQTT component, I came across
1639 <a href="https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Bqa2grG0XtA">another video from Kent
1640 VanderVelden</a> where he combine LinuxCNC with a set of screen glasses
1641 controlled by a Raspberry Pi, and it occured to me that it would
1642 be useful for such use cases if LinuxCNC also provided a REST API for
1643 querying its status.  I hope to start on such component once the MQTT
1644 component is working well.</p>
1645
1646 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1647 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1648 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1649
1650       </div>
1651       <div class="tags">
1652
1653
1654         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
1655
1656
1657       </div>
1658     </div>
1659     <div class="padding"></div>
1660
1661     <div class="entry">
1662       <div class="title">
1663         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ONVIF_IP_camera_management_tool_finally_in_Debian.html">ONVIF IP camera management tool finally in Debian</a>
1664       </div>
1665       <div class="date">
1666         24th December 2022
1667       </div>
1668       <div class="body">
1669         <p>Merry Christmas to you all.  Here is a small gift to all those with
1670 IP cameras following the <a href="https://www.onvif.org/">ONVIF
1671 specification</a>.  There is finally a nice command line and GUI tool
1672 in Debian to manage ONVIF IP cameras.  After working with upstream for
1673 a few months and sponsoring the upload, I am very happy to report that
1674 the <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/libonvif">libonvif package</a>
1675 entered Debian Sid last night.</p>
1676
1677 <p>The package provide a C library to communicate with such cameras, a
1678 command line tool to locate and update settings of (like password) the
1679 cameras and a GUI tool to configure and control the units as well as
1680 preview the video from the camera.  Libonvif is available on Both
1681 Linux and Windows and the GUI tool uses the Qt library.  The main
1682 competitors are non-free software, while libonvif is GNU GPL licensed.
1683 I am very glad Debian users in the future can control their cameras
1684 using a free software system provided by Debian.  But the ONVIF world
1685 is full of slightly broken firmware, where the cameras pretend to
1686 follow the ONVIF specification but fail to set some configuration
1687 values or refuse to provide video to more than one recipient at the
1688 time, and the onvif project is quite young and might take a while
1689 before it completely work with your camera.  Upstream seem eager to
1690 improve the library, so handling any broken camera might be just <a
1691 href="https://github.com/sr99622/libonvif/">a bug report away</a>.</p>
1692
1693 <p>The package just cleared NEW, and need a new source only upload
1694 before it can enter testing.  This will happen in the next few
1695 days.</p>
1696
1697 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1698 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1699 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1700
1701       </div>
1702       <div class="tags">
1703
1704
1705         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1706
1707
1708       </div>
1709     </div>
1710     <div class="padding"></div>
1711
1712     <div class="entry">
1713       <div class="title">
1714         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Managing_and_using_ONVIF_IP_cameras_with_Linux.html">Managing and using ONVIF IP cameras with Linux</a>
1715       </div>
1716       <div class="date">
1717         19th October 2022
1718       </div>
1719       <div class="body">
1720         <p>Recently I have been looking at how to control and collect data
1721 from a handful IP cameras using Linux.  I both wanted to change their
1722 settings and to make their imagery available via a free software
1723 service under my control.  Here is a summary of the tools I found.</p>
1724
1725 <p>First I had to identify the cameras and their protocols.  As far as
1726 I could tell, they were using some SOAP looking protocol and their
1727 internal web server seem to only work with Microsoft Internet Explorer
1728 with some proprietary binary plugin, which in these days of course is
1729 a security disaster and also made it impossible for me to use the
1730 camera web interface.  Luckily I discovered that the SOAP looking
1731 protocol is actually following <a href="https://www.onvif.org/">the
1732 ONVIF specification</a>, which seem to be supported by a lot of IP
1733 cameras these days.</p>
1734
1735 <p>Once the protocol was identified, I was able to find what appear to
1736 be the most popular way to configure ONVIF cameras, the free software
1737 Windows tool named
1738 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/onvifdm/">ONVIF Device
1739 Manager</a>.  Lacking any other options at the time, I tried
1740 unsuccessfully to get it running using Wine, but was missing a dotnet
1741 40 library and I found no way around it to run it on Linux.</p>
1742
1743 <p>The next tool I found to configure the cameras were a non-free Linux Qt
1744 client <a href="https://www.lingodigit.com/onvif_nvcdemo.html">ONVIF
1745 Device Tool</a>.  I did not like its terms of use, so did not spend
1746 much time on it.</p>
1747
1748 <p>To collect the video and make it available in a web interface, I
1749 found the Zoneminder tool in Debian.  A recent version was able to
1750 automatically detect and configure ONVIF devices, so I could use it to
1751 set up motion detection in and collection of the camera output.  I had
1752 initial problems getting the ONVIF autodetection to work, as both
1753 Firefox and Chromium <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1001188">refused
1754 the inter-tab communication</a> being used by the Zoneminder web
1755 pages, but managed to get konqueror to work.  Apparently the "Enhanced
1756 Tracking Protection" in Firefox cause the problem.  I ended up
1757 upgrading to the Bookworm edition of Zoneminder in the process to try
1758 to fix the issue, and believe the problem might be solved now.</p>
1759
1760 <p>In the process I came across the nice Linux GUI tool
1761 <a href="https://gitlab.com/caspermeijn/onvifviewer/">ONVIF Viewer</a>
1762 allowing me to preview the camera output and validate the login
1763 passwords required.  Sadly its author has grown tired of maintaining
1764 the software, so it might not see any future updates.  Which is sad,
1765 as the viewer is sightly unstable and the picture tend to lock up.
1766 Note, this lockup might be due to limitations in the cameras and not
1767 the viewer implementation.  I suspect the camera is only able to
1768 provide pictures to one client at the time, and the Zoneminder feed
1769 might interfere with the GUI viewer.  I have
1770 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1000820">asked for the tool to be
1771 included in Debian</a>.</p>
1772
1773 <p>Finally, I found what appear to be very nice Linux free software
1774 replacement for the Windows tool, named
1775 <a href="https://github.com/sr99622/libonvif/">libonvif</a>.  It
1776 provide a C library to talk to ONVIF devices as well as a command line
1777 and GUI tool using the library.  Using the GUI tool I was able to change
1778 the admin passwords and update other settings of the cameras.  I have
1779 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/1021980">asked for the package to be
1780 included in Debian</a>.</p>
1781
1782 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1783 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1784 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1785
1786 <p><strong>Update 2022-10-20</strong>: Since my initial publication of
1787 this text, I got several suggestions for more free software Linux
1788 tools.  There is <a href="https://github.com/quatanium/python-onvif">a
1789 ONVIF python library</a> (already
1790 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/824240">requested into Debian</a>) and
1791 <a href="https://github.com/FalkTannhaeuser/python-onvif-zeep">a python 3
1792 fork</a> using a different SOAP dependency.  There is also
1793 <a href="https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/onvif/">support for
1794 ONVIF in Home Assistant</a>, and there is an alternative to Zoneminder
1795 called <a href="https://www.shinobi.video/">Shinobi</a>.  The latter
1796 two are not included in Debian either.  I have not tested any of these
1797 so far.</p>
1798
1799       </div>
1800       <div class="tags">
1801
1802
1803         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1804
1805
1806       </div>
1807     </div>
1808     <div class="padding"></div>
1809
1810     <div class="entry">
1811       <div class="title">
1812         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_translate_the_Bullseye_edition_of_the_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Time to translate the Bullseye edition of the Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1813       </div>
1814       <div class="date">
1815         12th September 2022
1816       </div>
1817       <div class="body">
1818         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-10-20-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.jpeg" width="60%"/></p>
1819
1820 <p>(The picture is of the previous edition.)</p>
1821
1822 <p>Almost two years after the previous Norwegian Bokmål translation of
1823 the "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
1824 Handbook</a>" was published, a new edition is finally being prepared.  The
1825 english text is updated, and it is time to start working on the
1826 translations.  Around 37 percent of the strings have been updated, one
1827 way or another, and the translations starting from a complete Debian Buster
1828 edition now need to bring their translation up from 63% to 100%.  The
1829 complete book is licensed using a Creative Commons license, and has
1830 been published in several languages over the years.  The translations
1831 are done by volunteers to bring Linux in their native tongue.  The
1832 last time I checked, it complete text was available in English,
1833 Norwegian Bokmål, German, Indonesian, Brazil Portuguese and Spanish.
1834 In addition, work has been started for Arabic (Morocco), Catalan,
1835 Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish,
1836 Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish,
1837 Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese.</p>
1838
1839 <p>The translation is conducted on
1840 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1841 hosted weblate project page</a>.  Prospective translators are
1842 recommeded to subscribe to
1843 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1844 translators mailing list</a> and should also check out
1845 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1846 contributors</a>.</p>
1847
1848 <p>I am one of the Norwegian Bokmål translators of this book, and we
1849 have just started.  Your contribution is most welcome.</p>
1850
1851 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1852 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1853 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1854
1855       </div>
1856       <div class="tags">
1857
1858
1859         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1860
1861
1862       </div>
1863     </div>
1864     <div class="padding"></div>
1865
1866     <div class="entry">
1867       <div class="title">
1868         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_LinuxCNC_servo_PID_tuning_.html">Automatic LinuxCNC servo PID tuning?</a>
1869       </div>
1870       <div class="date">
1871         16th July 2022
1872       </div>
1873       <div class="body">
1874         <p>While working on a CNC with servo motors controlled by the
1875 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a>
1876 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller">PID
1877 controller</a>, I recently had to learn how to tune the collection of values
1878 that control such mathematical machinery that a PID controller is.  It
1879 proved to be a lot harder than I hoped, and I still have not succeeded
1880 in getting the Z PID controller to successfully defy gravity, nor X
1881 and Y to move accurately and reliably.  But while climbing up this
1882 rather steep learning curve, I discovered that some motor control
1883 systems are able to tune their PID controllers.  I got the impression
1884 from the documentation that LinuxCNC were not.  This proved to be not
1885 true.</p>
1886
1887 <p>The LinuxCNC
1888 <a href="http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/man/man9/pid.9.html">pid
1889 component</a> is the recommended PID controller to use.  It uses eight
1890 constants <tt>Pgain</tt>, <tt>Igain</tt>, <tt>Dgain</tt>,
1891 <tt>bias</tt>, <tt>FF0</tt>, <tt>FF1</tt>, <tt>FF2</tt> and
1892 <tt>FF3</tt> to calculate the output value based on current and wanted
1893 state, and all of these need to have a sensible value for the
1894 controller to behave properly.  Note, there are even more values
1895 involved, theser are just the most important ones.  In my case I need
1896 the X, Y and Z axes to follow the requested path with little error.
1897 This has proved quite a challenge for someone who have never tuned a
1898 PID controller before, but there is at least some help to be found.
1899
1900 <p>I discovered that included in LinuxCNC was this old PID component
1901 at_pid claiming to have auto tuning capabilities.  Sadly it had been
1902 neglected since 2011, and could not be used as a plug in replacement
1903 for the default pid component.  One would have to rewriting the
1904 LinuxCNC HAL setup to test at_pid.  This was rather sad, when I wanted
1905 to quickly test auto tuning to see if it did a better job than me at
1906 figuring out good P, I and D values to use.</p>
1907
1908 <p>I decided to have a look if the situation could be improved.  This
1909 involved trying to understand the code and history of the pid and
1910 at_pid components.  Apparently they had a common ancestor, as code
1911 structure, comments and variable names were quite close to each other.
1912 Sadly this was not reflected in the git history, making it hard to
1913 figure out what really happened.  My guess is that the author of
1914 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/src/hal/components/at_pid.c">at_pid.c</a>
1915 took a version of
1916 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/src/hal/components/pid.c">pid.c</a>,
1917 rewrote it to follow the structure he wished pid.c to have, then added
1918 support for auto tuning and finally got it included into the LinuxCNC
1919 repository.  The restructuring and lack of early history made it
1920 harder to figure out which part of the code were relevant to the auto
1921 tuning, and which part of the code needed to be updated to work the
1922 same way as the current pid.c implementation.  I started by trying to
1923 isolate relevant changes in pid.c, and applying them to at_pid.c.  My
1924 aim was to make sure the at_pid component could replace the pid
1925 component with a simple change in the HAL setup loadrt line, without
1926 having to "rewire" the rest of the HAL configuration.  After a few
1927 hours following this approach, I had learned quite a lot about the
1928 code structure of both components, while concluding I was heading down
1929 the wrong rabbit hole, and should get back to the surface and find a
1930 different path.</p>
1931
1932 <p>For the second attempt, I decided to throw away all the PID control
1933 related part of the original at_pid.c, and instead isolate and lift
1934 the auto tuning part of the code and inject it into a copy of pid.c.
1935 This ensured compatibility with the current pid component, while
1936 adding auto tuning as a run time option.  To make it easier to identify
1937 the relevant parts in the future, I wrapped all the auto tuning code
1938 with '#ifdef AUTO_TUNER'.  The end result behave just like the current
1939 pid component by default, as that part of the code is identical.  The
1940 <a href="https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/1820">end result
1941 entered the LinuxCNC master branch</a> a few days ago.</p>
1942
1943 <p>To enable auto tuning, one need to set a few HAL pins in the PID
1944 component.  The most important ones are <tt>tune-effort</tt>,
1945 <tt>tune-mode</tt> and <tt>tune-start</tt>.  But lets take a step
1946 back, and see what the auto tuning code will do.  I do not know the
1947 mathematical foundation of the at_pid algorithm, but from observation
1948 I can tell that the algorithm will, when enabled, produce a square
1949 wave pattern centered around the <tt>bias</tt> value on the output pin
1950 of the PID controller.  This can be seen using the HAL Scope provided
1951 by LinuxCNC.  In my case, this is translated into voltage (+-10V) sent
1952 to the motor controller, which in turn is translated into motor speed.
1953 So at_pid will ask the motor to move the axis back and forth.  The
1954 number of cycles in the pattern is controlled by the
1955 <tt>tune-cycles</tt> pin, and the extremes of the wave pattern is
1956 controlled by the <tt>tune-effort</tt> pin.  Of course, trying to
1957 change the direction of a physical object instantly (as in going
1958 directly from a positive voltage to the equivalent negative voltage)
1959 do not change velocity instantly, and it take some time for the object
1960 to slow down and move in the opposite direction.  This result in a
1961 more smooth movement wave form, as the axis in question were vibrating
1962 back and forth.  When the axis reached the target speed in the
1963 opposing direction, the auto tuner change direction again.  After
1964 several of these changes, the average time delay between the 'peaks'
1965 and 'valleys' of this movement graph is then used to calculate
1966 proposed values for Pgain, Igain and Dgain, and insert them into the
1967 HAL model to use by the pid controller.  The auto tuned settings are
1968 not great, but htye work a lot better than the values I had been able
1969 to cook up on my own, at least for the horizontal X and Y axis.  But I
1970 had to use very small <tt>tune-effort<tt> values, as my motor
1971 controllers error out if the voltage change too quickly.  I've been
1972 less lucky with the Z axis, which is moving a heavy object up and
1973 down, and seem to confuse the algorithm.  The Z axis movement became a
1974 lot better when I introduced a <tt>bias</tt> value to counter the
1975 gravitational drag, but I will have to work a lot more on the Z axis
1976 PID values.</p>
1977
1978 <p>Armed with this knowledge, it is time to look at how to do the
1979 tuning.  Lets say the HAL configuration in question load the PID
1980 component for X, Y and Z like this:</p>
1981
1982 <blockquote><pre>
1983 loadrt pid names=pid.x,pid.y,pid.z
1984 </pre></blockquote>
1985
1986 <p>Armed with the new and improved at_pid component, the new line will
1987 look like this:</p>
1988
1989 <blockquote><pre>
1990 loadrt at_pid names=pid.x,pid.y,pid.z
1991 </pre></blockquote>
1992
1993 <p>The rest of the HAL setup can stay the same.  This work because the
1994 components are referenced by name.  If the component had used count=3
1995 instead, all use of pid.# had to be changed to at_pid.#.</p>
1996
1997 <p>To start tuning the X axis, move the axis to the middle of its
1998 range, to make sure it do not hit anything when it start moving back
1999 and forth.  Next, set the <tt>tune-effort</tt> to a low number in the
2000 output range.  I used 0.1 as my initial value.  Next, assign 1 to the
2001 <tt>tune-mode</tt> value. Note, this will disable the pid controlling
2002 part and feed 0 to the output pin, which in my case initially caused a
2003 lot of drift.  In my case it proved to be a good idea with X and Y to
2004 tune the motor driver to make sure 0 voltage stopped the motor
2005 rotation.  On the other hand, for the Z axis this proved to be a bad
2006 idea, so it will depend on your setup.  It might help to set the
2007 <tt>bias</tt> value to a output value that reduce or eliminate the
2008 axis drift.  Finally, after setting <tt>tune-mode</tt>, set
2009 <tt>tune-start</tt> to 1 to activate the auto tuning.  If all go well,
2010 your axis will vibrate for a few seconds and when it is done, new
2011 values for Pgain, Igain and Dgain will be active.  To test them,
2012 change <tt>tune-mode</tt> back to 0.  Note that this might cause the
2013 machine to suddenly jerk as it bring the axis back to its commanded
2014 position, which it might have drifted away from during tuning.  To
2015 summarize with some halcmd lines:</p>
2016
2017 <blockquote><pre>
2018 setp pid.x.tune-effort 0.1
2019 setp pid.x.tune-mode 1
2020 setp pid.x.tune-start 1
2021 # wait for the tuning to complete
2022 setp pid.x.tune-mode 0
2023 </pre></blockquote>
2024
2025 <p>After doing this task quite a few times while trying to figure out
2026 how to properly tune the PID controllers on the machine in, I decided
2027 to figure out if this process could be automated, and wrote a script
2028 to do the entire tuning process from power on.  The end result will
2029 ensure the machine is powered on and ready to run, home all axis if it
2030 is not already done, check that the extra tuning pins are available,
2031 move the axis to its mid point, run the auto tuning and re-enable the
2032 pid controller when it is done.  It can be run several times.  Check
2033 out the
2034 <a href="https://github.com/SebKuzminsky/MazakVQC1540/blob/bon-dev/scripts/run-auto-pid-tuner">run-auto-pid-tuner</a>
2035 script on github if you want to learn how it is done.</p>
2036
2037 <p>My hope is that this little adventure can inspire someone who know
2038 more about motor PID controller tuning can implement even better
2039 algorithms for automatic PID tuning in LinuxCNC, making life easier
2040 for both me and all the others that want to use LinuxCNC but lack the
2041 in depth knowledge needed to tune PID controllers well.</p>
2042
2043 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2044 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2045 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2046
2047       </div>
2048       <div class="tags">
2049
2050
2051         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2052
2053
2054       </div>
2055     </div>
2056     <div class="padding"></div>
2057
2058     <div class="entry">
2059       <div class="title">
2060         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LinuxCNC_translators_life_just_got_a_bit_easier.html">LinuxCNC translators life just got a bit easier</a>
2061       </div>
2062       <div class="date">
2063          3rd June 2022
2064       </div>
2065       <div class="body">
2066         <p>Back in oktober last year, when I started looking at the
2067 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a> system, I
2068 proposed to change the documentation build system make life easier for
2069 translators.  The original system consisted of independently written
2070 documentation files for each language, with no automated way to track
2071 changes done in other translations and no help for the translators to
2072 know how much was left to translated.  By using
2073 <a href="https://po4a.org/">the po4a system</a> to generate POT and PO
2074 files from the English documentation, this can be improved.  A small
2075 team of LinuxCNC contributors got together and today our labour
2076 finally payed off.  Since a few hours ago, it is now possible to
2077 translate <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/linuxcnc/">the
2078 LinuxCNC documentation on Weblate</a>, alongside the program itself.</p>
2079
2080 <p>The effort to migrate the documentation to use po4a has been both
2081 slow and frustrating.  I am very happy we finally made it.</p>
2082
2083 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2084 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2085 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2086
2087       </div>
2088       <div class="tags">
2089
2090
2091         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2092
2093
2094       </div>
2095     </div>
2096     <div class="padding"></div>
2097
2098     <div class="entry">
2099       <div class="title">
2100         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/geteltorito_make_CD_firmware_upgrades_a_breeze.html">geteltorito make CD firmware upgrades a breeze</a>
2101       </div>
2102       <div class="date">
2103         20th April 2022
2104       </div>
2105       <div class="body">
2106         <p>Recently I wanted to upgrade the firmware of my thinkpad, and
2107 located the firmware download page from Lenovo (which annoyingly do
2108 not allow access via Tor, forcing me to hand them more personal
2109 information that I would like).  The
2110 <a href="https://support.lenovo.com/no/en/search?query=thinkpad firmware bios upgrade iso&SearchType=Customer search&searchLocation=Masthead">download
2111 from Lenovo</a> is a bootable ISO image, which is a bit of a problem
2112 when all I got available is a USB memory stick.  I tried booting the
2113 ISO as a USB stick, but this did not work.  But genisoimage came to
2114 the rescue.</p>
2115
2116 <P>The geteltorito program in
2117 <a href="http://tracker.debian.org/cdrkit">the genisoimage binary
2118 package</a> is able to convert the bootable ISO image to a bootable
2119 USB stick using a simple command line recipe, which I then can write
2120 to the most recently inserted USB stick:</p>
2121
2122 <blockquote><pre>
2123 geteltorito -o usbstick.img lenovo-firmware.iso
2124 sudo dd bs=10M if=usbstick.img of=$(ls -tr /dev/sd?|tail -1)
2125 </pre></blockquote>
2126
2127 <p>This USB stick booted the firmware upgrader just fine, and in a few
2128 minutes my machine had the latest and greatest BIOS firmware in place.</p>
2129
2130       </div>
2131       <div class="tags">
2132
2133
2134         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2135
2136
2137       </div>
2138     </div>
2139     <div class="padding"></div>
2140
2141     <div class="entry">
2142       <div class="title">
2143         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Run_your_industrial_metal_working_machine_using_Debian_.html">Run your industrial metal working machine using Debian?</a>
2144       </div>
2145       <div class="date">
2146          2nd March 2022
2147       </div>
2148       <div class="body">
2149         <p>After many months of hard work by the good people involved in
2150 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxCNC">LinuxCNC</a>, the
2151 system was accepted Sunday
2152 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linuxcnc">into Debian</a>.
2153 Once it was available from Debian, I was surprised to discover from
2154 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=linuxcnc">its
2155 popularity-contest numbers</a> that people have been reporting its use
2156 since 2012.  <a href="http://linuxcnc.org/">Its project site</a> might
2157 be a good place to check out, but sadly is not working when visiting
2158 via Tor.</p>
2159
2160 <p>But what is LinuxCNC, you are probably wondering?  Perhaps a
2161 Wikipedia quote is in place?</p>
2162
2163 <blockquote>
2164 "LinuxCNC is a software system for numerical control of
2165 machines such as milling machines, lathes, plasma cutters, routers,
2166 cutting machines, robots and hexapods. It can control up to 9 axes or
2167 joints of a CNC machine using G-code (RS-274NGC) as input. It has
2168 several GUIs suited to specific kinds of usage (touch screen,
2169 interactive development)."
2170 </blockquote>
2171
2172 <p>It can even control 3D printers.  And even though the Wikipedia
2173 page indicate that it can only work with hard real time kernel
2174 features, it can also work with the user space soft real time features
2175 provided by the Debian kernel.
2176 <a href="https://github.com/linuxcnc/linuxcnc">The source code</a> is
2177 available from Github.  The last few months I've been involved in the
2178 translation setup for the program and documentation.  Translators are
2179 most welcome to
2180 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/linuxcnc/">join the
2181 effort</a> using Weblate.</p>
2182
2183 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2184 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2185 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2186
2187       </div>
2188       <div class="tags">
2189
2190
2191         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2192
2193
2194       </div>
2195     </div>
2196     <div class="padding"></div>
2197
2198     <div class="entry">
2199       <div class="title">
2200         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_still_an_excellent_choice_for_Lego_builders.html">Debian still an excellent choice for Lego builders</a>
2201       </div>
2202       <div class="date">
2203         24th October 2021
2204       </div>
2205       <div class="body">
2206         <p>The Debian Lego team saw a lot of activity the last few weeks.  All
2207 the packages under the team umbrella has been updated to fix
2208 packaging, lintian issues and BTS reports.  In addition, a new and
2209 inspiring team member appeared on both the
2210 <a href="https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-lego-team">debian-lego-team
2211 Team mailing list</a> and
2212 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC channel
2213 #debian-lego</a>.  If you are interested in Lego CAD design and LEGO
2214 Mindstorms programming, check out the
2215 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">team wiki page</a> to
2216 see what Debian can offer the Lego enthusiast.</p>
2217
2218 <p>Patches has been sent upstream, causing new upstream releases, one
2219 even the first one in more than ten years, and old upstreams was
2220 released with new ones.  There are still a lot of work left, and the
2221 team welcome more members to help us make sure Debian is the Linux
2222 distribution of choice for Lego builders.  If you want to contribute,
2223 join us in the IRC channel and become part of
2224 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/debian-lego-team/">the team on
2225 Salsa</a>.</p>
2226
2227 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2228 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2229 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2230
2231       </div>
2232       <div class="tags">
2233
2234
2235         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2236
2237
2238       </div>
2239     </div>
2240     <div class="padding"></div>
2241
2242     <div class="entry">
2243       <div class="title">
2244         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Six_complete_translations_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_for_Buster.html">Six complete translations of The Debian Administrator's Handbook for Buster</a>
2245       </div>
2246       <div class="date">
2247          5th July 2021
2248       </div>
2249       <div class="body">
2250         <p>I am happy observe that the <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The
2251 Debian Administrator's Handbook</a> is available in six languages now.
2252 I am not sure which one of these are completely proof read, but the
2253 complete book is available in these languages:
2254
2255 <ul>
2256
2257 <li>English</li>
2258 <li>Norwegian Bokmål</li>
2259 <li>German</li>
2260 <li>Indonesian</li>
2261 <li>Brazil Portuguese</li>
2262 <li>Spanish</li>
2263
2264 </ul>
2265
2266 <p>This is the list of languages more than 70% complete, in other
2267 words with not too much left to do:</p>
2268
2269 <ul>
2270
2271 <li>Chinese (Simplified) - 90%</li>
2272 <li>French - 79%</li>
2273 <li>Italian - 79%</li>
2274 <li>Japanese - 77%</li>
2275 <li>Arabic (Morocco) - 75%</li>
2276 <li>Persian - 71%</li>
2277
2278 </ul>
2279
2280 <p>I wonder how long it will take to bring these to 100%.</p>
2281
2282 <p>Then there is the list of languages about halfway done:</p>
2283
2284 <ul>
2285
2286 <li>Russian - 63%</li>
2287 <li>Swedish - 53%</li>
2288 <li>Chinese (Traditional) - 46%</li>
2289 <li>Catalan - 45%</li>
2290
2291 </ul>
2292
2293 <p>Several are on to a good start:</p>
2294
2295 <ul>
2296
2297 <li>Dutch - 26%</li>
2298 <li>Vietnamese - 25%</li>
2299 <li>Polish - 23%</li>
2300 <li>Czech - 22%</li>
2301 <li>Turkish - 18%</li>
2302
2303 </ul>
2304
2305 <p>Finally, there are the ones just getting started:</p>
2306
2307 <ul>
2308
2309 <li>Korean - 4%</li>
2310 <li>Croatian - 2%</li>
2311 <li>Greek - 2%</li>
2312 <li>Danish - 1%</li>
2313 <li>Romanian - 1%</li>
2314
2315 </ul>
2316
2317 <p>If you want to help provide a Debian instruction book in your own
2318 language, visit
2319 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/#languages">Weblate</a>
2320 to contribute to the translations.</p>
2321
2322 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2323 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2324 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2325
2326       </div>
2327       <div class="tags">
2328
2329
2330         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2331
2332
2333       </div>
2334     </div>
2335     <div class="padding"></div>
2336
2337     <div class="entry">
2338       <div class="title">
2339         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Latest_Jami_back_in_Debian_Testing__and_scriptable_using_dbus.html">Latest Jami back in Debian Testing, and scriptable using dbus</a>
2340       </div>
2341       <div class="date">
2342         12th January 2021
2343       </div>
2344       <div class="body">
2345         <p>After a lot of hard work by its maintainer Alexandre Viau and
2346 others, the decentralized communication platform
2347 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>
2348 (earlier known as Ring), managed to get
2349 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">its latest version</a>
2350 into Debian Testing.  Several of its dependencies has caused build and
2351 propagation problems, which all seem to be solved now.</p>
2352
2353 <p>In addition to the fact that Jami is decentralized, similar to how
2354 bittorrent is decentralized, I first of all like how it is not
2355 connected to external IDs like phone numbers.  This allow me to set up
2356 computers to send me notifications using Jami without having to find
2357 get a phone number for each computer.  Automatic notification via Jami
2358 is also made trivial thanks to the provided client side API (as a DBus
2359 service).  Here is my bourne shell script demonstrating how to let any
2360 system send a message to any Jami address.  It will create a new
2361 identity before sending the message, if no Jami identity exist
2362 already:</p>
2363
2364 <p><pre>
2365 #!/bin/sh
2366 #
2367 # Usage: $0 <jami-address> <message>
2368 #
2369 # Send <message> to <jami-address>, create local jami account if
2370 # missing.
2371 #
2372 # License: GPL v2 or later at your choice
2373 # Author: Petter Reinholdtsen
2374
2375
2376 if [ -z "$HOME" ] ; then
2377     echo "error: missing \$HOME, required for dbus to work"
2378     exit 1
2379 fi
2380
2381 # First, get dbus running if not already running
2382 DBUSLAUNCH=/usr/bin/dbus-launch
2383 PIDFILE=/run/asterisk/dbus-session.pid
2384 if [ -e $PIDFILE ] ; then
2385     . $PIDFILE
2386     if ! kill -0 $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID 2>/dev/null ; then
2387         unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
2388     fi
2389 fi
2390 if [ -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ] && [ -x "$DBUSLAUNCH" ]; then
2391     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=$HOME/.dbus"
2392     dbus-daemon --session --address="$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" --nofork --nopidfile --syslog-only < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 3>&1 &
2393     DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$!
2394     (
2395         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
2396         echo DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=\""$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"\"
2397         echo export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
2398     ) > $PIDFILE
2399     . $PIDFILE
2400 fi &
2401
2402 dringop() {
2403     part="$1"; shift
2404     op="$1"; shift
2405     dbus-send --session \
2406         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
2407 }
2408
2409 dringopreply() {
2410     part="$1"; shift
2411     op="$1"; shift
2412     dbus-send --session --print-reply \
2413         --dest="cx.ring.Ring" /cx/ring/Ring/$part cx.ring.Ring.$part.$op $*
2414 }
2415
2416 firstaccount() {
2417     dringopreply ConfigurationManager getAccountList | \
2418       grep string | awk -F'"' '{print $2}' | head -n 1
2419 }
2420
2421 account=$(firstaccount)
2422
2423 if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
2424     echo "Missing local account, trying to create it"
2425     dringop ConfigurationManager addAccount \
2426       dict:string:string:"Account.type","RING","Account.videoEnabled","false"
2427     account=$(firstaccount)
2428     if [ -z "$account" ] ; then
2429         echo "unable to create local account"
2430         exit 1
2431     fi
2432 fi
2433
2434 # Not using dringopreply to ensure $2 can contain spaces
2435 dbus-send --print-reply --session \
2436   --dest=cx.ring.Ring \
2437   /cx/ring/Ring/ConfigurationManager \
2438   cx.ring.Ring.ConfigurationManager.sendTextMessage \
2439   string:"$account" string:"$1" \
2440   dict:string:string:"text/plain","$2"
2441 </pre></p>
2442
2443 <p>If you want to check it out yourself, visit the
2444 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system project page</a> to learn
2445 more, and install the latest Jami client from Debian Unstable or
2446 Testing.</p>
2447
2448 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2449 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2450 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2451
2452       </div>
2453       <div class="tags">
2454
2455
2456         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2457
2458
2459       </div>
2460     </div>
2461     <div class="padding"></div>
2462
2463     <div class="entry">
2464       <div class="title">
2465         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_based_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Buster based Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
2466       </div>
2467       <div class="date">
2468         20th October 2020
2469       </div>
2470       <div class="body">
2471         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-10-20-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.jpeg" width="60%"/></p>
2472
2473 <p>I am happy to report that we finally made it!  Norwegian Bokmål
2474 became the first translation published on paper of the new Buster
2475 based edition of "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
2476 Administrator's Handbook</a>".  The print proof reading copy arrived
2477 some days ago, and it looked good, so now the book is approved for
2478 general distribution.  This updated paperback edition <a
2479 href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available from
2480 lulu.com</a>.  The book is also available for download in electronic
2481 form as PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, and can also be
2482 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online</a>.</p>
2483
2484 <p>I am very happy to wrap up this Creative Common licensed project,
2485 which concludes several months of work by several volunteers. The
2486 number of Linux related books published in Norwegian are few, and I
2487 really hope this one will gain many readers, as it is packed with deep
2488 knowledge on Linux and the Debian ecosystem.  The book will be
2489 available for various Internet book stores like Amazon and Barnes &
2490 Noble soon, but I recommend buying
2491 "<a href="https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/roland-mas-and-rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-9j7qwq.html">Håndbok
2492 for Debian-administratoren</a>" directly from the source at Lulu.
2493
2494 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2495 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2496 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2497
2498       </div>
2499       <div class="tags">
2500
2501
2502         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2503
2504
2505       </div>
2506     </div>
2507     <div class="padding"></div>
2508
2509     <div class="entry">
2510       <div class="title">
2511         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Buster_update_of_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_almost_done.html">Buster update of Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook almost done</a>
2512       </div>
2513       <div class="date">
2514         11th September 2020
2515       </div>
2516       <div class="body">
2517         <p>Thanks to the good work of several volunteers, the updated edition
2518 of the Norwegian translation for
2519 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
2520 Handbook</a>" is now almost completed.  After many months of proof
2521 reading, I consider the proof reading complete enough for us to move
2522 to the next step, and have asked for the print version to be prepared
2523 and sent of to the print on demand service lulu.com.  While it is
2524 still not to late if you find any incorrect translations on
2525 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
2526 hosted Weblate service</a>, but it will be soon. :) You can check out
2527 <a href=" https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">the Buster
2528 edition on the web</a> until the print edition is ready.</p>
2529
2530 <p>The book will be for sale on lulu.com and various web book stores,
2531 with links available from the web site for the book linked to above.
2532 I hope a lot of readers find it useful.</p>
2533
2534 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2535 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2536 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2537
2538       </div>
2539       <div class="tags">
2540
2541
2542         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2543
2544
2545       </div>
2546     </div>
2547     <div class="padding"></div>
2548
2549     <div class="entry">
2550       <div class="title">
2551         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Working_on_updated_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Working on updated Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
2552       </div>
2553       <div class="date">
2554          4th July 2020
2555       </div>
2556       <div class="body">
2557         <p>Three years ago, the first Norwegian Bokmål edition of
2558 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
2559 Handbook</a>" was published.  This was based on Debian Jessie.  Now a
2560 new and updated version based on Buster is getting ready.  Work on the
2561 updated Norwegian Bokmål edition has been going on for a few months
2562 now, and yesterday, we reached the first mile stone, with 100% of the
2563 texts being translated.  A lot of proof reading remains, of course,
2564 but a major step towards a new edition has been taken.</p>
2565
2566 <p>The book is translated by volunteers, and we would love to get some
2567 help with the proof reading.  The translation uses
2568 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/languages/nb_NO/debian-handbook/">the
2569 hosted Weblate service</a>, and we welcome everyone to have a look and
2570 submit improvements and suggestions.  There is also a proof readers
2571 PDF available on request, get in touch if you want to help out that
2572 way.</p>
2573
2574 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2575 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2576 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2577
2578       </div>
2579       <div class="tags">
2580
2581
2582         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2583
2584
2585       </div>
2586     </div>
2587     <div class="padding"></div>
2588
2589     <div class="entry">
2590       <div class="title">
2591         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Secure_Socket_API___a_simple_and_powerful_approach_for_TLS_support_in_software.html">Secure Socket API - a simple and powerful approach for TLS support in software</a>
2592       </div>
2593       <div class="date">
2594          6th June 2020
2595       </div>
2596       <div class="body">
2597         <p>As a member of the <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix
2598 User Group</a>, I have the pleasure of receiving the
2599 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a> magazine
2600 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/">;login:</a>
2601 several times a year.  I rarely have time to read all the articles,
2602 but try to at least skim through them all as there is a lot of nice
2603 knowledge passed on there.  I even carry the latest issue with me most
2604 of the time to try to get through all the articles when I have a few
2605 spare minutes.</p>
2606
2607 <p>The other day I came across a nice article titled
2608 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/winter2018/oneill">The
2609 Secure Socket API: TLS as an Operating System Service</a>" with a
2610 marvellous idea I hope can make it all the way into the POSIX standard.
2611 The idea is as simple as it is powerful.  By introducing a new
2612 socket() option IPPROTO_TLS to use TLS, and a system wide service to
2613 handle setting up TLS connections, one both make it trivial to add TLS
2614 support to any program currently using the POSIX socket API, and gain
2615 system wide control over certificates, TLS versions and encryption
2616 systems used.  Instead of doing this:</p>
2617
2618 <p><blockquote><pre>
2619 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TCP);
2620 </pre></blockquote></p>
2621
2622 <p>the program code would be doing this:<p>
2623
2624 <p><blockquote><pre>
2625 int socket = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_TLS);
2626 </pre></blockquote></p>
2627
2628 <p>According to the ;login: article, converting a C program to use TLS
2629 would normally modify only 5-10 lines in the code, which is amazing
2630 when compared to using for example the OpenSSL API.</p>
2631
2632 <p>The project has set up the
2633 <a href="https://securesocketapi.org/">https://securesocketapi.org/</a>
2634 web site to spread the idea, and the code for a kernel module and the
2635 associated system daemon is available from two github repositories:
2636 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa">ssa</a> and
2637 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa-daemon">ssa-daemon</a>.
2638 Unfortunately there is no explicit license information with the code,
2639 so its copyright status is unclear.  A
2640 <a href="https://github.com/markoneill/ssa/issues/2">request to solve
2641 this</a> about it has been unsolved since 2018-08-17.</p>
2642
2643 <p>I love the idea of extending socket() to gain TLS support, and
2644 understand why it is an advantage to implement this as a kernel module
2645 and system wide service daemon, but can not help to think that it
2646 would be a lot easier to get projects to move to this way of setting
2647 up TLS if it was done with a user space approach where programs
2648 wanting to use this API approach could just link with a wrapper
2649 library.</p>
2650
2651 <p>I recommend you check out this simple and powerful approach to more
2652 secure network connections. :)</p>
2653
2654 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2655 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2656 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2657
2658       </div>
2659       <div class="tags">
2660
2661
2662         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
2663
2664
2665       </div>
2666     </div>
2667     <div class="padding"></div>
2668
2669     <div class="entry">
2670       <div class="title">
2671         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_as_a_Zoom_client__a_trick_for_password_protected_rooms___.html">Jami as a Zoom client, a trick for password protected rooms...</a>
2672       </div>
2673       <div class="date">
2674          8th May 2020
2675       </div>
2676       <div class="body">
2677         <p>Half a year ago,
2678 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">I
2679 wrote</a> about <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami communication
2680 client</a>, capable of peer-to-peer encrypted communication.  It
2681 handle both messages, audio and video.  It uses distributed hash
2682 tables instead of central infrastructure to connect its users to each
2683 other, which in my book is a plus.  I mentioned briefly that it could
2684 also work as a SIP client, which came in handy when the higher
2685 educational sector in Norway started to promote Zoom as its video
2686 conferencing solution.  I am reluctant to use the official Zoom client
2687 software, due to their <a href="https://zoom.us/terms">copyright
2688 license clauses</a> prohibiting users to reverse engineer (for example
2689 to check the security) and benchmark it, and thus prefer to connect to
2690 Zoom meetings with free software clients.</p>
2691
2692 <p>Jami worked OK as a SIP client to Zoom as long as there was no
2693 password set on the room.  The Jami daemon leak memory like crazy
2694 (approximately 1 GiB a minute) when I am connected to the video
2695 conference, so I had to restart the client every 7-10 minutes, which
2696 is not great.  I tried to get other SIP Linux clients to work
2697 without success, so I decided I would have to live with this wart
2698 until someone managed to fix the leak in the dring code base.  But
2699 another problem showed up once the rooms were password protected.  I
2700 could not get my dial tone signaling through from Jami to Zoom, and
2701 dial tone signaling is used to enter the password when connecting to
2702 Zoom.  I tried a lot of different permutations with my Jami and
2703 Asterisk setup to try to figure out why the signaling did not get
2704 through, only to finally discover that the fundamental problem seem to
2705 be that Zoom is simply not able to receive dial tone signaling when
2706 connecting via SIP.  There seem to be nothing wrong with the Jami and
2707 Asterisk end, it is simply broken in the Zoom end.  I got help from a
2708 very skilled VoIP engineer figuring out this last part.  And being a
2709 very skilled engineer, he was also able to locate a solution for me.
2710 Or to be exact, a workaround that solve my initial problem of
2711 connecting to password protected Zoom rooms using Jami.</p>
2712
2713 <p>So, how do you do this, I am sure you are wondering by now.  The
2714 trick is already
2715 <a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202405539-H-323-SIP-Room-Connector-Dial-Strings#sip">documented
2716 from Zoom</a>, and it is to modify the SIP address to include the room
2717 password.  What is most surprising about this is that the
2718 automatically generated email from Zoom with instructions on how to
2719 connect via SIP do not mention this.  The SIP address to use normally
2720 consist of the room ID (a number), an @ character and the IP address
2721 of the Zoom SIP gateway.  But Zoom understand a lot more than just the
2722 room ID in front of the at sign.  The format is "<tt>[Meeting
2723 ID].[Password].[Layout].[Host Key]</tt>", and you can here see how you
2724 can both enter password, control the layout (full screen, active
2725 presence and gallery) and specify the host key to start the meeting.
2726 The full SIP address entered into Jami to provide the password will
2727 then look like this (all using made up numbers):</p>
2728
2729 <p><blockquote>
2730 <tt>sip:657837644.522827@192.168.169.170</tt>
2731 </blockquote></p>
2732
2733 <p>Now if only jami would reduce its memory usage, I could even
2734 recommend this setup to others. :)</p>
2735
2736 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2737 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2738 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2739
2740       </div>
2741       <div class="tags">
2742
2743
2744         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2745
2746
2747       </div>
2748     </div>
2749     <div class="padding"></div>
2750
2751     <div class="entry">
2752       <div class="title">
2753         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html">GnuCOBOL, a free platform to learn and use COBOL - nice free software</a>
2754       </div>
2755       <div class="date">
2756         29th April 2020
2757       </div>
2758       <div class="body">
2759         <p>The curiosity got the better of me when
2760 <a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers">Slashdot
2761 reported</a> that New Jersey was desperately looking for
2762 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a> programmers,
2763 and a few days later it was reported that
2764 <a href="https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce">IBM
2765 tried to locate COBOL programmers</a>.</p>
2766
2767 <p>I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to
2768 learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find
2769 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/">GnuCOBOL</a> was
2770 already <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol">in
2771 Debian</a>.  It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a "compiler"
2772 transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual
2773 Studio to build binaries.</p>
2774
2775 <p>I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the
2776 quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer
2777 taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced.  A
2778 new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.</p>
2779
2780 <p>Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL
2781 introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs.  It was fun to
2782 learn a new programming language.  If you want to test for yourself,
2783 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL">the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia
2784 page</a> have a few simple examples to get you startet.</p>
2785
2786 <p>As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how
2787 standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL
2788 test suite, which sound good to me.  It is nice to know it is possible
2789 to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am
2790 very happy such nice free software project as this is available.  If
2791 you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.</p>
2792
2793 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2794 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2795 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2796
2797       </div>
2798       <div class="tags">
2799
2800
2801         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2802
2803
2804       </div>
2805     </div>
2806     <div class="padding"></div>
2807
2808     <div class="entry">
2809       <div class="title">
2810         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html">Jami/Ring, finally functioning peer to peer communication client</a>
2811       </div>
2812       <div class="date">
2813         19th June 2019
2814       </div>
2815       <div class="body">
2816         <p>Some years ago, in 2016, I
2817 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">wrote
2818 for the first time about</a> the Ring peer to peer messaging system.
2819 It would provide messaging without any central server coordinating the
2820 system and without requiring all users to register a phone number or
2821 own a mobile phone.  Back then, I could not get it to work, and put it
2822 aside until it had seen more development.  A few days ago I decided to
2823 give it another try, and am happy to report that this time I am able
2824 to not only send and receive messages, but also place audio and video
2825 calls.  But only if UDP is not blocked into your network.</p>
2826
2827 <p>The Ring system changed name earlier this year to
2828 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)">Jami</a>.  I
2829 tried doing web search for 'ring' when I discovered it for the first
2830 time, and can only applaud this change as it is impossible to find
2831 something called Ring among the noise of other uses of that word.  Now
2832 you can search for 'jami' and this client and
2833 <a href="https://jami.net/">the Jami system</a> is the first hit at
2834 least on duckduckgo.</p>
2835
2836 <p>Jami will by default encrypt messages as well as audio and video
2837 calls, and try to send them directly between the communicating parties
2838 if possible.  If this proves impossible (for example if both ends are
2839 behind NAT), it will use a central SIP TURN server maintained by the
2840 Jami project.  Jami can also be a normal SIP client.  If the SIP
2841 server is unencrypted, the audio and video calls will also be
2842 unencrypted.  This is as far as I know the only case where Jami will
2843 do anything without encryption.</p>
2844
2845 <p>Jami is available for several platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOSX,
2846 Android, iOS, and Android TV.  It is included in Debian already.  Jami
2847 also work for those using F-Droid without any Google connections,
2848 while Signal do not.
2849 <a href="https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/ring-project/wikis/technical/Protocol">The
2850 protocol</a> is described in the Ring project wiki.  The system uses a
2851 distributed hash table (DHT) system (similar to BitTorrent) running
2852 over UDP.  On one of the networks I use, I discovered Jami failed to
2853 work.  I tracked this down to the fact that incoming UDP packages
2854 going to ports 1-49999 were blocked, and the DHT would pick a random
2855 port and end up in the low range most of the time.  After talking to
2856 the developers, I solved this by enabling the dhtproxy in the
2857 settings, thus using TCP to talk to a central DHT proxy instead of
2858
2859 peering directly with others.  I've been told the developers are
2860 working on allowing DHT to use TCP to avoid this problem.  I also ran
2861 into a problem when trying to talk to the version of Ring included in
2862 Debian Stable (Stretch).  Apparently the protocol changed between
2863 beta2 and the current version, making these clients incompatible.
2864 Hopefully the protocol will not be made incompatible in the
2865 future.</p>
2866
2867 <p>It is worth noting that while looking at Jami and its features, I
2868 came across another communication platform I have not tested yet.  The
2869 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)">Tox protocol</a>
2870 and <a href="https://tox.chat/">family of Tox clients</a>.  It might
2871 become the topic of a future blog post.</p>
2872
2873 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2874 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2875 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2876
2877       </div>
2878       <div class="tags">
2879
2880
2881         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2882
2883
2884       </div>
2885     </div>
2886     <div class="padding"></div>
2887
2888     <div class="entry">
2889       <div class="title">
2890         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Strategispillet_Unknown_Horizons_n__tilgjengelig_p__bokm_l.html">Strategispillet Unknown Horizons nå tilgjengelig på bokmål</a>
2891       </div>
2892       <div class="date">
2893         23rd January 2019
2894       </div>
2895       <div class="body">
2896         <p>I høst ble jeg inspirert til å bidra til oversettelsen av
2897 <a href="http://unknown-horizons.org/">strategispillet Unknown
2898 Horizons</a>, og oversatte de nesten 200 strengene i prosjektet til
2899 bokmål.  Deretter har jeg gått å ventet på at det kom en ny utgave som
2900 inneholdt disse oversettelsene.  Nå er endelig ventetiden over.  Den
2901 nye versjonen kom på nyåret, og ble
2902 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/unknown-horizons">lastet opp i
2903 Debian</a> for noen få dager siden.  I går kveld fikk jeg testet det ut, og
2904 må innrømme at oversettelsene fungerer fint.  Fant noen få tekster som
2905 måtte justeres, men ikke noe alvorlig.  Har oppdatert
2906 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/uh/">oversettelsen på
2907 Weblate</a>, slik at neste utgave vil være enda bedre. :)</p>
2908
2909 <p>Spillet er et ressursstyringsspill ala Civilization, og er morsomt
2910 å spille for oss som liker slikt. :)</p>
2911
2912 <p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til
2913 det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner
2914 til min adresse
2915 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.
2916 Merk, betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)</p>
2917
2918       </div>
2919       <div class="tags">
2920
2921
2922         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
2923
2924
2925       </div>
2926     </div>
2927     <div class="padding"></div>
2928
2929     <div class="entry">
2930       <div class="title">
2931         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_got_everything_you_need_to_program_Micro_bit.html">Debian now got everything you need to program Micro:bit</a>
2932       </div>
2933       <div class="date">
2934         22nd January 2019
2935       </div>
2936       <div class="body">
2937         <p>I am amazed and very pleased to discover that since a few days ago,
2938 everything you need to program the <a href="https://microbit.org/">BBC
2939 micro:bit</a> is available from the Debian archive.  All this is
2940 thanks to the hard work of Nick Morrott and the Debian python
2941 packaging team.  The micro:bit project recommend the mu-editor to
2942 program the microcomputer, as this editor will take care of all the
2943 machinery required to injekt/flash micropython alongside the program
2944 into the micro:bit, as long as the pieces are available.</p>
2945
2946 <p>There are three main pieces involved.  The first to enter Debian
2947 was
2948 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-uflash">python-uflash</a>,
2949 which was accepted into the archive 2019-01-12.  The next one was
2950 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mu-editor">mu-editor</a>, which
2951 showed up 2019-01-13.  The final and hardest part to to into the
2952 archive was
2953 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firmware-microbit-micropython">firmware-microbit-micropython</a>,
2954 which needed to get its build system and dependencies into Debian
2955 before it was accepted 2019-01-20.  The last one is already in Debian
2956 Unstable and should enter Debian Testing / Buster in three days.  This
2957 all allow any user of the micro:bit to get going by simply running
2958 'apt install mu-editor' when using Testing or Unstable, and once
2959 Buster is released as stable, all the users of Debian stable will be
2960 catered for.</p>
2961
2962 <p>As a minor final touch, I added rules to
2963 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">the isenkram
2964 package</a> for recognizing micro:bit and recommend the mu-editor
2965 package.  This make sure any user of the isenkram desktop daemon will
2966 get a popup suggesting to install mu-editor then the USB cable from
2967 the micro:bit is inserted for the first time.</p>
2968
2969 <p>This should make it easier to have fun.</p>
2970
2971 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2972 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2973 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2974
2975       </div>
2976       <div class="tags">
2977
2978
2979         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
2980
2981
2982       </div>
2983     </div>
2984     <div class="padding"></div>
2985
2986     <div class="entry">
2987       <div class="title">
2988         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Learn_to_program_with_Minetest_on_Debian.html">Learn to program with Minetest on Debian</a>
2989       </div>
2990       <div class="date">
2991         15th December 2018
2992       </div>
2993       <div class="body">
2994         <p>A fun way to learn how to program
2995 <a href="https://www.python.org/">Python</a> is to follow the
2996 instructions in the book
2997 "<a href="https://nostarch.com/programwithminecraft">Learn to program
2998 with Minecraft</a>", which introduces programming in Python to people
2999 who like to play with Minecraft.  The book uses a Python library to
3000 talk to a TCP/IP socket with an API accepting build instructions and
3001 providing information about the current players in a Minecraft world.
3002 The TCP/IP API was first created for the Minecraft implementation for
3003 Raspberry Pi, and has since been ported to some server versions of
3004 Minecraft.  The book contain recipes for those using Windows, MacOSX
3005 and Raspian.  But a little known fact is that you can follow the same
3006 recipes using the free software construction game
3007 <a href="https://minetest.net/">Minetest</a>.</p>
3008
3009 <p>There is <a href="https://github.com/sprintingkiwi/pycraft_mod">a
3010 Minetest module implementing the same API</a>, making it possible to
3011 use the Python programs coded to talk to Minecraft with Minetest too.
3012 I
3013 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new/minetest-mod-pycraft_0.20%2Bgit20180331.0376a0a%2Bdfsg-1.html">uploaded
3014 this module</a> to Debian two weeks ago, and as soon as it clears the
3015 FTP masters NEW queue, learning to program Python with Minetest on
3016 Debian will be a simple 'apt install' away.  The Debian package is
3017 maintained as part of the Debian Games team, and
3018 <a href="https://salsa.debian.org/games-team/unfinished/minetest-mod-pycraft">the
3019 packaging rules</a> are currently located under 'unfinished' on
3020 Salsa.</p>
3021
3022 <p>You will most likely need to install several of the Minetest
3023 modules in Debian for the examples included with the library to work
3024 well, as there are several blocks used by the example scripts that are
3025 provided via modules in Minetest.  Without the required blocks, a
3026 simple stone block is used instead.  My initial testing with a analog
3027 clock did not get gold arms as instructed in the python library, but
3028 instead used stone arms.</p>
3029
3030 <p>I tried to find a way to add the API to the desktop version of
3031 Minecraft, but were unable to find any working recipes.  The
3032 <a href="https://www.epiphanydigest.com/tag/minecraft-python-api/">recipes</a>
3033 I <a href="https://github.com/kbsriram/mcpiapi">found</a> are only
3034 working with a standalone Minecraft server setup.  Are there any
3035 options to use with the normal desktop version?</p>
3036
3037 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3038 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3039 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3040
3041       </div>
3042       <div class="tags">
3043
3044
3045         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3046
3047
3048       </div>
3049     </div>
3050     <div class="padding"></div>
3051
3052     <div class="entry">
3053       <div class="title">
3054         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html">Time for an official MIME type for patches?</a>
3055       </div>
3056       <div class="date">
3057          1st November 2018
3058       </div>
3059       <div class="body">
3060         <p>As part of my involvement in
3061 <a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core">the Nikita
3062 archive API project</a>, I've been importing a fairly large lump of
3063 emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would
3064 go.  I picked a subset of <a href="https://notmuchmail.org/">my
3065 notmuch email database</a>, all public emails sent to me via
3066 @lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import.
3067 In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in
3068 these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed
3069 that one of the most common attachment formats do not have
3070 <a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">an
3071 official MIME type</a> registered with IANA/IETF.  The output from
3072 diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats
3073 included in these emails.  At the moment people seem to use either
3074 text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered.  It
3075 would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used
3076 everywhere.</p>
3077
3078 <p>To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought
3079 up the topic on
3080 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types">the
3081 media-types mailing list</a>.  If you are interested in discussion
3082 which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in
3083 making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like
3084 to join the discussion?</p>
3085
3086 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3087 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3088 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3089
3090       </div>
3091       <div class="tags">
3092
3093
3094         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
3095
3096
3097       </div>
3098     </div>
3099     <div class="padding"></div>
3100
3101     <div class="entry">
3102       <div class="title">
3103         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html">Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian</a>
3104       </div>
3105       <div class="date">
3106          4th October 2018
3107       </div>
3108       <div class="body">
3109         <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian.  To try to
3110 rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive.
3111 I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this
3112 automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from
3113 <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/">the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA</a> to do the
3114 task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to
3115 run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync.
3116 Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.</p>
3117
3118 <p>I first created <tt>~/googledrive</tt>, entered the directory and
3119 ran '<tt>grive -a</tt>' to authenticate the machine/user.  Next, I
3120 created a autostart hook in <tt>~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop</tt>
3121 to start the sync when the user log in:</p>
3122
3123 <p><blockquote><pre>
3124 [Desktop Entry]
3125 Name=Google drive autosync
3126 Type=Application
3127 Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync
3128 </pre></blockquote></p>
3129
3130 <p>Finally, I wrote the <tt>~/bin/grive-sync</tt> script to sync
3131 ~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.</p>
3132
3133 <p><blockquote><pre>
3134 #!/bin/sh
3135 set -e
3136 cd ~/
3137 cleanup() {
3138     if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then
3139         kill $syncpid
3140     fi
3141 }
3142 trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT
3143 /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" &
3144 syncpdi=$!
3145 while true; do
3146     if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
3147         echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out"
3148         exit 1
3149     fi
3150     if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then
3151         /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive
3152     fi
3153     sleep 300
3154 done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%"
3155 </pre></blockquote></p>
3156
3157 <p>Feel free to use the setup if you want.  It can be assumed to be
3158 GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I
3159 doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.</p>
3160
3161 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3162 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3163 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3164
3165       </div>
3166       <div class="tags">
3167
3168
3169         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3170
3171
3172       </div>
3173     </div>
3174     <div class="padding"></div>
3175
3176     <div class="entry">
3177       <div class="title">
3178         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html">Using the Kodi API to play Youtube videos</a>
3179       </div>
3180       <div class="date">
3181          2nd September 2018
3182       </div>
3183       <div class="body">
3184         <p>I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to
3185 tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to
3186 insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard.  After searching the
3187 web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed
3188 to find a recipe that worked.  If you got a kodi instance with its API
3189 available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to
3190 have check out a nice cover band.</p>
3191
3192 <p><blockquote><pre>curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
3193   --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open",
3194   "params": {"item": { "file":
3195   "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \
3196   http://projector.local/jsonrpc</pre></blockquote></p>
3197
3198 <p>I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its
3199 first argument.  It can now handle direct video links, youtube links
3200 and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi.  It is almost like a
3201 Chromecast. :)</p>
3202
3203 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3204 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3205 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3206
3207       </div>
3208       <div class="tags">
3209
3210
3211         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3212
3213
3214       </div>
3215     </div>
3216     <div class="padding"></div>
3217
3218     <div class="entry">
3219       <div class="title">
3220         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sharing_images_with_friends_and_family_using_RSS_and_EXIF_XMP_metadata.html">Sharing images with friends and family using RSS and EXIF/XMP metadata</a>
3221       </div>
3222       <div class="date">
3223         31st July 2018
3224       </div>
3225       <div class="body">
3226         <p>For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images
3227 with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to
3228 place images from my personal life under the control of strangers
3229 working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox.  The last few days I
3230 have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to
3231 share it with you.  I would like to publish images on a server under
3232 my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some
3233 free and open standard to the images I published.  As my primary
3234 language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using
3235 UTF-8.  Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable
3236 of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the
3237 &lt;enclosure&gt; RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier
3238 of such frames.  In the end I gave up that approach.</p>
3239
3240 <p>Some months ago, I discovered that
3241 <a href="https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/">XScreensaver</a> is able to
3242 read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on
3243 my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from
3244 NASA.  This proved to work well.  More recently I discovered that
3245 <a href="https://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> (both using
3246 <a href="https://www.openelec.tv/">OpenELEC</a> and
3247 <a href="https://libreelec.tv">LibreELEC</a>) provide the
3248 <a href="https://github.com/grinsted/script.screensaver.feedreader">Feedreader</a>
3249 screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news.  For
3250 fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up
3251 a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a
3252 screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.</p>
3253
3254 <p>Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate
3255 a RSS feed for the Kodi instance.  I adjusted my <a
3256 href="https://freedombox.org/">Freedombox</a> instance, created
3257 /var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract
3258 title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the
3259 RSS file.  I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the
3260 libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP
3261 tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not.  The relevant EXIF
3262 tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives.  XMP
3263 seem to have the support I need.</p>
3264
3265 <p>I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to
3266 use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software
3267 photo managing software.  I ended up using the tags set using this
3268 exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:</p>
3269
3270 <blockquote><pre>
3271 exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
3272   -description='The RSS image description.' \
3273   -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
3274 </pre></blockquote>
3275
3276 <p>I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were
3277 invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject".  I
3278 use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be
3279 shared with my family.  Images with this keyword set are located and
3280 copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.</p>
3281
3282 <p>Are there better ways to do this?  Get in touch if you have better
3283 suggestions.</p>
3284
3285 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3286 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3287 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3288
3289       </div>
3290       <div class="tags">
3291
3292
3293         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3294
3295
3296       </div>
3297     </div>
3298     <div class="padding"></div>
3299
3300     <div class="entry">
3301       <div class="title">
3302         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP</a>
3303       </div>
3304       <div class="date">
3305         12th July 2018
3306       </div>
3307       <div class="body">
3308         <p>Last night, I wrote
3309 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">a
3310 recipe to stream a Linux desktop using VLC to a instance of Kodi</a>.
3311 During the day I received valuable feedback, and thanks to the
3312 suggestions I have been able to rewrite the recipe into a much simpler
3313 approach requiring no setup at all.  It is a single script that take
3314 care of it all.</p>
3315
3316 <p>This new script uses GStreamer instead of VLC to capture the
3317 desktop and stream it to Kodi.  This fixed the video quality issue I
3318 saw initially.  It further removes the need to add a m3u file on the
3319 Kodi machine, as it instead connects to
3320 <a href="https://kodi.wiki/view/JSON-RPC_API/v8">the JSON-RPC API in
3321 Kodi</a> and simply ask Kodi to play from the stream created using
3322 GStreamer.  Streaming the desktop to Kodi now become trivial.  Copy
3323 the script below, run it with the DNS name or IP address of the kodi
3324 server to stream to as the only argument, and watch your screen show
3325 up on the Kodi screen.  Note, it depend on multicast on the local
3326 network, so if you need to stream outside the local network, the
3327 script must be modified.  Also note, I have no idea if audio work, as
3328 I only care about the picture part.</p>
3329
3330 <blockquote><pre>
3331 #!/bin/sh
3332 #
3333 # Stream the Linux desktop view to Kodi.  See
3334 # https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html
3335 # for backgorund information.
3336
3337 # Make sure the stream is stopped in Kodi and the gstreamer process is
3338 # killed if something go wrong (for example if curl is unable to find the
3339 # kodi server).  Do the same when interrupting this script.
3340 kodicmd() {
3341     host="$1"
3342     cmd="$2"
3343     params="$3"
3344     curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
3345          --data-binary "{ \"id\": 1, \"jsonrpc\": \"2.0\", \"method\": \"$cmd\", \"params\": $params }" \
3346          "http://$host/jsonrpc"
3347 }
3348 cleanup() {
3349     if [ -n "$kodihost" ] ; then
3350         # Stop the playing when we end
3351         playerid=$(kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.GetActivePlayers "{}" |
3352                             jq .result[].playerid)
3353         kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Stop "{ \"playerid\" : $playerid }" > /dev/null
3354     fi
3355     if [ "$gstpid" ] && kill -0 "$gstpid" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
3356         kill "$gstpid"
3357     fi
3358 }
3359 trap cleanup EXIT INT
3360
3361 if [ -n "$1" ]; then
3362     kodihost=$1
3363     shift
3364 else
3365     kodihost=kodi.local
3366 fi
3367
3368 mcast=239.255.0.1
3369 mcastport=1234
3370 mcastttl=1
3371
3372 pasrc=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' | \
3373   cut -d" " -f2|head -1)
3374 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
3375   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
3376   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
3377   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
3378   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
3379   udpsink host=$mcast port=$mcastport ttl-mc=$mcastttl auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
3380   pulsesrc device=$pasrc ! audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux. \
3381   > /dev/null 2>&1 &
3382 gstpid=$!
3383
3384 # Give stream a second to get going
3385 sleep 1
3386
3387 # Ask kodi to start streaming using its JSON-RPC API
3388 kodicmd "$kodihost" Player.Open \
3389         "{\"item\": { \"file\": \"udp://@$mcast:$mcastport\" } }" > /dev/null
3390
3391 # wait for gst to end
3392 wait "$gstpid"
3393 </pre></blockquote>
3394
3395 <p>I hope you find the approach useful.  I know I do.</p>
3396
3397 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3398 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3399 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3400
3401       </div>
3402       <div class="tags">
3403
3404
3405         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3406
3407
3408       </div>
3409     </div>
3410     <div class="padding"></div>
3411
3412     <div class="entry">
3413       <div class="title">
3414         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_VLC_and_RTSP.html">Streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using VLC and RTSP</a>
3415       </div>
3416       <div class="date">
3417         12th July 2018
3418       </div>
3419       <div class="body">
3420         <p>PS: See
3421 <ahref="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html">the
3422 followup post</a> for a even better approach.</p>
3423
3424 <p>A while back, I was asked by a friend how to stream the desktop to
3425 my projector connected to Kodi.  I sadly had to admit that I had no
3426 idea, as it was a task I never had tried.  Since then, I have been
3427 looking for a way to do so, preferable without much extra software to
3428 install on either side.  Today I found a way that seem to kind of
3429 work.  Not great, but it is a start.</p>
3430
3431 <p>I had a look at several approaches, for example
3432 <a href="https://github.com/mfoetsch/dlna_live_streaming">using uPnP
3433 DLNA as described in 2011</a>, but it required a uPnP server, fuse and
3434 local storage enough to store the stream locally.  This is not going
3435 to work well for me, lacking enough free space, and it would
3436 impossible for my friend to get working.</p>
3437
3438 <p>Next, it occurred to me that perhaps I could use VLC to create a
3439 video stream that Kodi could play.  Preferably using
3440 broadcast/multicast, to avoid having to change any setup on the Kodi
3441 side when starting such stream.  Unfortunately, the only recipe I
3442 could find using multicast used the rtp protocol, and this protocol
3443 seem to not be supported by Kodi.</p>
3444
3445 <p>On the other hand, the rtsp protocol is working!  Unfortunately I
3446 have to specify the IP address of the streaming machine in both the
3447 sending command and the file on the Kodi server.  But it is showing my
3448 desktop, and thus allow us to have a shared look on the big screen at
3449 the programs I work on.</p>
3450
3451 <p>I did not spend much time investigating codeces.  I combined the
3452 rtp and rtsp recipes from
3453 <a href="https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Command_Line_Examples/">the
3454 VLC Streaming HowTo/Command Line Examples</a>, and was able to get
3455 this working on the desktop/streaming end.</p>
3456
3457 <blockquote><pre>
3458 vlc screen:// --sout \
3459   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{dst=projector.local,port=1234,sdp=rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp}'
3460 </pre></blockquote>
3461
3462 <p>I ssh-ed into my Kodi box and created a file like this with the
3463 same IP address:</p>
3464
3465 <blockquote><pre>
3466 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/test.sdp \
3467   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
3468 </pre></blockquote>
3469
3470 <p>Note the 192.168.11.4 IP address is my desktops IP address.  As far
3471 as I can tell the IP must be hardcoded for this to work.  In other
3472 words, if someone elses machine is going to do the steaming, you have
3473 to update screenstream.m3u on the Kodi machine and adjust the vlc
3474 recipe.  To get started, locate the file in Kodi and select the m3u
3475 file while the VLC stream is running.  The desktop then show up in my
3476 big screen. :)</p>
3477
3478 <p>When using the same technique to stream a video file with audio,
3479 the audio quality is really bad.  No idea if the problem is package
3480 loss or bad parameters for the transcode.  I do not know VLC nor Kodi
3481 enough to tell.</p>
3482
3483 <p><strong>Update 2018-07-12</strong>: Johannes Schauer send me a few
3484 succestions and reminded me about an important step.  The "screen:"
3485 input source is only available once the vlc-plugin-access-extra
3486 package is installed on Debian.  Without it, you will see this error
3487 message: "VLC is unable to open the MRL 'screen://'.  Check the log
3488 for details."  He further found that it is possible to drop some parts
3489 of the VLC command line to reduce the amount of hardcoded information.
3490 It is also useful to consider using cvlc to avoid having the VLC
3491 window in the desktop view.  In sum, this give us this command line on
3492 the source end
3493
3494 <blockquote><pre>
3495 cvlc screen:// --sout \
3496   '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{sdp=rtsp://:8080/}'
3497 </pre></blockquote>
3498
3499 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
3500
3501 <blockquote><pre>
3502 echo rtsp://192.168.11.4:8080/ \
3503   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
3504 </pre></blockquote>
3505
3506 <p>Still bad image quality, though.  But I did discover that streaming
3507 a DVD using dvdsimple:///dev/dvd as the source had excellent video and
3508 audio quality, so I guess the issue is in the input or transcoding
3509 parts, not the rtsp part.  I've tried to change the vb and ab
3510 parameters to use more bandwidth, but it did not make a
3511 difference.</p>
3512
3513 <p>I further received a suggestion from Einar Haraldseid to try using
3514 gstreamer instead of VLC, and this proved to work great!  He also
3515 provided me with the trick to get Kodi to use a multicast stream as
3516 its source.  By using this monstrous oneliner, I can stream my desktop
3517 with good video quality in reasonable framerate to the 239.255.0.1
3518 multicast address on port 1234:
3519
3520 <blockquote><pre>
3521 gst-launch-1.0 ximagesrc use-damage=0 ! video/x-raw,framerate=30/1 ! \
3522   videoconvert ! queue2 ! \
3523   x264enc bitrate=8000 speed-preset=superfast tune=zerolatency qp-min=30 \
3524   key-int-max=15 bframes=2 ! video/x-h264,profile=high ! queue2 ! \
3525   mpegtsmux alignment=7 name=mux ! rndbuffersize max=1316 min=1316 ! \
3526   udpsink host=239.255.0.1 port=1234 ttl-mc=1 auto-multicast=1 sync=0 \
3527   pulsesrc device=$(pactl list | grep -A2 'Source #' | \
3528     grep 'Name: .*\.monitor$' |  cut -d" " -f2|head -1) ! \
3529   audioconvert ! queue2 ! avenc_aac ! queue2 ! mux.
3530 </pre></blockquote>
3531
3532 <p>and this on the Kodi end<p>
3533
3534 <blockquote><pre>
3535 echo udp://@239.255.0.1:1234 \
3536   > /storage/videos/screenstream.m3u
3537 </pre></blockquote>
3538
3539 <p>Note the trick to pick a valid pulseaudio source.  It might not
3540 pick the one you need.  This approach will of course lead to trouble
3541 if more than one source uses the same multicast port and address.
3542 Note the ttl-mc=1 setting, which limit the multicast packages to the
3543 local network.  If the value is increased, your screen will be
3544 broadcasted further, one network "hop" for each increase (read up on
3545 multicast to learn more. :)!</p>
3546
3547 <p>Having cracked how to get Kodi to receive multicast streams, I
3548 could use this VLC command to stream to the same multicast address.
3549 The image quality is way better than the rtsp approach, but gstreamer
3550 seem to be doing a better job.</p>
3551
3552 <blockquote><pre>
3553 cvlc screen:// --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=800,ab=128}:rtp{mux=ts,dst=239.255.0.1,port=1234,sdp=sap}'
3554 </pre></blockquote>
3555
3556 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3557 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3558 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3559
3560       </div>
3561       <div class="tags">
3562
3563
3564         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
3565
3566
3567       </div>
3568     </div>
3569     <div class="padding"></div>
3570
3571     <div class="entry">
3572       <div class="title">
3573         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_in_2018_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian in 2018?</a>
3574       </div>
3575       <div class="date">
3576          9th July 2018
3577       </div>
3578       <div class="body">
3579         <p>Five years ago,
3580 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">I
3581 measured what the most supported MIME type in Debian was</a>, by
3582 analysing the desktop files in all packages in the archive.  Since
3583 then, the DEP-11 AppStream system has been put into production, making
3584 the task a lot easier.  This made me want to repeat the measurement,
3585 to see how much things changed.  Here are the new numbers, for
3586 unstable only this time:
3587
3588 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
3589
3590 <pre>
3591   count MIME type
3592   ----- -----------------------
3593      56 image/jpeg
3594      55 image/png
3595      49 image/tiff
3596      48 image/gif
3597      39 image/bmp
3598      38 text/plain
3599      37 audio/mpeg
3600      34 application/ogg
3601      33 audio/x-flac
3602      32 audio/x-mp3
3603      30 audio/x-wav
3604      30 audio/x-vorbis+ogg
3605      29 image/x-portable-pixmap
3606      27 inode/directory
3607      27 image/x-portable-bitmap
3608      27 audio/x-mpeg
3609      26 application/x-ogg
3610      25 audio/x-mpegurl
3611      25 audio/ogg
3612      24 text/html
3613 </pre>
3614
3615 <p>The list was created like this using a sid chroot: "cat
3616 /var/lib/apt/lists/*sid*_dep11_Components-amd64.yml.gz| zcat | awk '/^
3617 - \S+\/\S+$/ {print $2 }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20"</p>
3618
3619 <p>It is interesting to see how image formats have passed text/plain
3620 as the most announced supported MIME type.  These days, thanks to the
3621 AppStream system, if you run into a file format you do not know, and
3622 want to figure out which packages support the format, you can find the
3623 MIME type of the file using "file --mime &lt;filename&gt;", and then
3624 look up all packages announcing support for this format in their
3625 AppStream metadata (XML or .desktop file) using "appstreamcli
3626 what-provides mimetype &lt;mime-type&gt;.  For example if you, like
3627 me, want to know which packages support inode/directory, you can get a
3628 list like this:</p>
3629
3630 <p><blockquote><pre>
3631 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype inode/directory | grep Package: | sort
3632 Package: anjuta
3633 Package: audacious
3634 Package: baobab
3635 Package: cervisia
3636 Package: chirp
3637 Package: dolphin
3638 Package: doublecmd-common
3639 Package: easytag
3640 Package: enlightenment
3641 Package: ephoto
3642 Package: filelight
3643 Package: gwenview
3644 Package: k4dirstat
3645 Package: kaffeine
3646 Package: kdesvn
3647 Package: kid3
3648 Package: kid3-qt
3649 Package: nautilus
3650 Package: nemo
3651 Package: pcmanfm
3652 Package: pcmanfm-qt
3653 Package: qweborf
3654 Package: ranger
3655 Package: sirikali
3656 Package: spacefm
3657 Package: spacefm
3658 Package: vifm
3659 %
3660 </pre></blockquote></p>
3661
3662 <p>Using the same method, I can quickly discover that the Sketchup file
3663 format is not yet supported by any package in Debian:</p>
3664
3665 <p><blockquote><pre>
3666 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/vnd.sketchup.skp
3667 Could not find component providing 'mimetype::application/vnd.sketchup.skp'.
3668 %
3669 </pre></blockquote></p>
3670
3671 <p>Yesterday I used it to figure out which packages support the STL 3D
3672 format:</p>
3673
3674 <p><blockquote><pre>
3675 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype  application/sla|grep Package
3676 Package: cura
3677 Package: meshlab
3678 Package: printrun
3679 %
3680 </pre></blockquote></p>
3681
3682 <p>PS: A new version of Cura was uploaded to Debian yesterday.</p>
3683
3684 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3685 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3686 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3687
3688       </div>
3689       <div class="tags">
3690
3691
3692         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
3693
3694
3695       </div>
3696     </div>
3697     <div class="padding"></div>
3698
3699     <div class="entry">
3700       <div class="title">
3701         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_APT_upgrade_without_enough_free_space_on_the_disk___.html">Debian APT upgrade without enough free space on the disk...</a>
3702       </div>
3703       <div class="date">
3704          8th July 2018
3705       </div>
3706       <div class="body">
3707         <p>Quite regularly, I let my Debian Sid/Unstable chroot stay untouch
3708 for a while, and when I need to update it there is not enough free
3709 space on the disk for apt to do a normal 'apt upgrade'.  I normally
3710 would resolve the issue by doing 'apt install &lt;somepackages&gt;' to
3711 upgrade only some of the packages in one batch, until the amount of
3712 packages to download fall below the amount of free space available.
3713 Today, I had about 500 packages to upgrade, and after a while I got
3714 tired of trying to install chunks of packages manually.  I concluded
3715 that I did not have the spare hours required to complete the task, and
3716 decided to see if I could automate it.  I came up with this small
3717 script which I call 'apt-in-chunks':</p>
3718
3719 <p><blockquote><pre>
3720 #!/bin/sh
3721 #
3722 # Upgrade packages when the disk is too full to upgrade every
3723 # upgradable package in one lump.  Fetching packages to upgrade using
3724 # apt, and then installing using dpkg, to avoid changing the package
3725 # flag for manual/automatic.
3726
3727 set -e
3728
3729 ignore() {
3730     if [ "$1" ]; then
3731         grep -v "$1"
3732     else
3733         cat
3734     fi
3735 }
3736
3737 for p in $(apt list --upgradable | ignore "$@" |cut -d/ -f1 | grep -v '^Listing...'); do
3738     echo "Upgrading $p"
3739     apt clean
3740     apt install --download-only -y $p
3741     for f in /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb; do
3742         if [ -e "$f" ]; then
3743             dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
3744             break
3745         fi
3746     done
3747 done
3748 </pre></blockquote></p>
3749
3750 <p>The script will extract the list of packages to upgrade, try to
3751 download the packages needed to upgrade one package, install the
3752 downloaded packages using dpkg.  The idea is to upgrade packages
3753 without changing the APT mark for the package (ie the one recording of
3754 the package was manually requested or pulled in as a dependency).  To
3755 use it, simply run it as root from the command line.  If it fail, try
3756 'apt install -f' to clean up the mess and run the script again.  This
3757 might happen if the new packages conflict with one of the old
3758 packages.  dpkg is unable to remove, while apt can do this.</p>
3759
3760 <p>It take one option, a package to ignore in the list of packages to
3761 upgrade.  The option to ignore a package is there to be able to skip
3762 the packages that are simply too large to unpack.  Today this was
3763 'ghc', but I have run into other large packages causing similar
3764 problems earlier (like TeX).</p>
3765
3766 <p>Update 2018-07-08: Thanks to Paul Wise, I am aware of two
3767 alternative ways to handle this.  The "unattended-upgrades
3768 --minimal-upgrade-steps" option will try to calculate upgrade sets for
3769 each package to upgrade, and then upgrade them in order, smallest set
3770 first.  It might be a better option than my above mentioned script.
3771 Also, "aptutude upgrade" can upgrade single packages, thus avoiding
3772 the need for using "dpkg -i" in the script above.</p>
3773
3774 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3775 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3776 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3777
3778       </div>
3779       <div class="tags">
3780
3781
3782         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3783
3784
3785       </div>
3786     </div>
3787     <div class="padding"></div>
3788
3789     <div class="entry">
3790       <div class="title">
3791         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Version_3_1_of_Cura__the_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian.html">Version 3.1 of Cura, the 3D print slicer, is now in Debian</a>
3792       </div>
3793       <div class="date">
3794         13th February 2018
3795       </div>
3796       <div class="body">
3797         <p>A new version of the
3798 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">3D printer slicer
3799 software Cura</a>, version 3.1.0, is now available in Debian Testing
3800 (aka Buster) and Debian Unstable (aka Sid).  I hope you find it
3801 useful.  It was uploaded the last few days, and the last update will
3802 enter testing tomorrow.  See the
3803 <a href="https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software/release-notes">release
3804 notes</a> for the list of bug fixes and new features.  Version 3.2
3805 was announced 6 days ago.  We will try to get it into Debian as
3806 well.</p>
3807
3808 <p>More information related to 3D printing is available on the
3809 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3DPrinting">3D printing</a> and
3810 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/3D-printer">3D printer</a> wiki pages
3811 in Debian.</p>
3812
3813 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3814 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3815 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3816
3817       </div>
3818       <div class="tags">
3819
3820
3821         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3822
3823
3824       </div>
3825     </div>
3826     <div class="padding"></div>
3827
3828     <div class="entry">
3829       <div class="title">
3830         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cura__the_nice_3D_print_slicer__is_now_in_Debian_Unstable.html">Cura, the nice 3D print slicer, is now in Debian Unstable</a>
3831       </div>
3832       <div class="date">
3833         17th December 2017
3834       </div>
3835       <div class="body">
3836         <p>After several months of working and waiting, I am happy to report
3837 that the nice and user friendly 3D printer slicer software Cura just
3838 entered Debian Unstable.  It consist of five packages,
3839 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura">cura</a>,
3840 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cura-engine">cura-engine</a>,
3841 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libarcus">libarcus</a>,
3842 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/fdm-materials">fdm-materials</a>,
3843 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libsavitar">libsavitar</a> and
3844 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/uranium">uranium</a>.  The last
3845 two, uranium and cura, entered Unstable yesterday.  This should make
3846 it easier for Debian users to print on at least the Ultimaker class of
3847 3D printers.  My nearest 3D printer is an Ultimaker 2+, so it will
3848 make life easier for at least me. :)</p>
3849
3850 <p>The work to make this happen was done by Gregor Riepl, and I was
3851 happy to assist him in sponsoring the packages.  With the introduction
3852 of Cura, Debian is up to three 3D printer slicers at your service,
3853 Cura, Slic3r and Slic3r Prusa.  If you own or have access to a 3D
3854 printer, give it a go. :)</p>
3855
3856 <p>The 3D printer software is maintained by the 3D printer Debian
3857 team, flocking together on the
3858 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/3dprinter-general">3dprinter-general</a>
3859 mailing list and the
3860 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-3dprinting">#debian-3dprinting</a>
3861 IRC channel.</p>
3862
3863 <p>The next step for Cura in Debian is to update the cura package to
3864 version 3.0.3 and then update the entire set of packages to version
3865 3.1.0 which showed up the last few days.</p>
3866
3867       </div>
3868       <div class="tags">
3869
3870
3871         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3872
3873
3874       </div>
3875     </div>
3876     <div class="padding"></div>
3877
3878     <div class="entry">
3879       <div class="title">
3880         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Generating_3D_prints_in_Debian_using_Cura_and_Slic3r__prusa_.html">Generating 3D prints in Debian using Cura and Slic3r(-prusa)</a>
3881       </div>
3882       <div class="date">
3883          9th October 2017
3884       </div>
3885       <div class="body">
3886         <p>At my nearby maker space,
3887 <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Sonen</a>, I heard the story that it
3888 was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+)
3889 on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had
3890 to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages
3891 worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X.  I found this annoying,
3892 as the software involved,
3893 <a href="https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura">Cura</a>, is free software
3894 and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took
3895 the time to package it for the relevant distributions.  I even found
3896 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/706656">a request for adding into
3897 Debian</a> from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but
3898 never resulted in the software showing up in Debian.  So a few days
3899 ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.</p>
3900
3901 <p>Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a
3902 working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW
3903 queue for the ftpmasters to have a look.  You can track the progress
3904 on
3905 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?email=3dprinter-general%40lists.alioth.debian.org">the
3906 status page for the 3D printer team</a>.</p>
3907
3908 <p>The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded
3909 now to get slots in <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW
3910 queue</a> while we work up updating the packages to the latest
3911 upstream version.</p>
3912
3913 <p>On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder
3914 to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the
3915 short time I spent on it, are already in Debian.  If you are looking
3916 for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in
3917 Debian, check out
3918 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r">slic3r</a> and
3919 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/slic3r-prusa">slic3r-prusa</a>.
3920 The latter is a fork of the former.</p>
3921
3922 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3923 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3924 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3925
3926       </div>
3927       <div class="tags">
3928
3929
3930         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3931
3932
3933       </div>
3934     </div>
3935     <div class="padding"></div>
3936
3937     <div class="entry">
3938       <div class="title">
3939         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html">Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass</a>
3940       </div>
3941       <div class="date">
3942         29th September 2017
3943       </div>
3944       <div class="body">
3945         <p>Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
3946 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
3947 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
3948 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
3949 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
3950 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
3951 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
3952 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
3953 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
3954 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
3955 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
3956 listen.</p>
3957
3958 <p>I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
3959 visualizing this information up and running for
3960 <a href="http://norwaymakers.org/osf17">Oslo Skaperfestival 2017</a>
3961 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
3962 library.  The solution is based on the
3963 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">simple
3964 recipe for listening to GSM chatter</a> I posted a few days ago, and
3965 will show up at the stand of <a href="http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/">Åpen
3966 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
3967 Oslo</a>.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
3968 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
3969 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
3970 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.</p>
3971
3972 <p>We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
3973 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
3974 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
3975 <a href="https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass">English version of
3976 Hopglass</a>.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
3977 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
3978 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a> converting
3979 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.</p>
3980
3981 <p>The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
3982 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
3983 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
3984 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output">patches
3985 in my meshviewer-output branch</a>.  For some reason we could not get
3986 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
3987 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
3988 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
3989 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
3990 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
3991 mentioned in
3992 <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14">the github
3993 issue for the topic</a>.
3994
3995 <p>If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!</p>
3996
3997       </div>
3998       <div class="tags">
3999
4000
4001         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4002
4003
4004       </div>
4005     </div>
4006     <div class="padding"></div>
4007
4008     <div class="entry">
4009       <div class="title">
4010         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html">Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you</a>
4011       </div>
4012       <div class="date">
4013         24th September 2017
4014       </div>
4015       <div class="body">
4016         <p>A little more than a month ago I wrote
4017 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">how
4018 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
4019 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
4020 cheap USB software defined radio</a>, and thus being able to pinpoint
4021 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
4022 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
4023 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
4024 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.</p>
4025
4026 <p>The <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm">gr-gsm</a>
4027 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
4028 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
4029 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.</p>
4030
4031 <p>Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
4032 clone of two python scripts:</p>
4033
4034 <ol>
4035
4036 <li>Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
4037   testing).</li>
4038
4039 <li>Run '<tt>apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
4040   python-scapy</tt>' as root to install required packages.</li>
4041
4042 <li>Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using '<tt>git clone
4043   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git</tt>'.</li>
4044
4045 <li>Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.</li>
4046
4047 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
4048   scan-and-livemon</tt>' to locate the frequency of nearby base
4049   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.</li>
4050
4051 <li>Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run '<tt>python
4052   simple_IMSI-catcher.py</tt>' to display the collected information.</li>
4053
4054 </ol>
4055
4056 <p>Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
4057 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336">its underlying
4058 program grgsm_scanner</a>) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
4059 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
4060 very cheaply
4061 (<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832">for example
4062 from ebay</a>), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
4063 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.</p>
4064
4065 <p>As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
4066 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
4067 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
4068 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
4069 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
4070 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
4071 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
4072 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.</p>
4073
4074 <p>I've tried to run the scanner on a
4075 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
4076 running Debian Buster</a>, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
4077 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print 'O' to
4078 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
4079 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
4080 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal
4081 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
4082 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
4083 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
4084 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
4085 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().</p>
4086
4087       </div>
4088       <div class="tags">
4089
4090
4091         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4092
4093
4094       </div>
4095     </div>
4096     <div class="padding"></div>
4097
4098     <div class="entry">
4099       <div class="title">
4100         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html">Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian</a>
4101       </div>
4102       <div class="date">
4103          9th August 2017
4104       </div>
4105       <div class="body">
4106         <p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
4107 web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
4108 <a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
4109 to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
4110 DVB-T software defined radios.  The article refered to instructions
4111 and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
4112 Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
4113
4114 <p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
4115 bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
4116 and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
4117 scratch.  I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
4118 Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
4119 stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
4120 some other version skew problem.  While trying to get this recipe
4121 working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
4122 and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
4123 gr-gsm package.  I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
4124 gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
4125 Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository.  All I needed to
4126 do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
4127
4128 <p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
4129 loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
4130 packages with IMSI numbers in them.  The code is fairly short and easy
4131 to understand.  The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
4132 to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
4133 and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
4134 network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
4135 default).  This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
4136 collector for a few days now.</p>
4137
4138 <p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
4139
4140 <ol>
4141
4142 <li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
4143
4144 <li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
4145 <a href="http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/">http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/</a>,</li>
4146
4147 <li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
4148
4149 <li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
4150 where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
4151 found a GSM station).</li>
4152
4153 <li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
4154
4155 </ol>
4156
4157 <p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
4158 running, I decided to package
4159 <a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
4160 for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
4161 #871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
4162 Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
4163 know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
4164
4165 <p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
4166 commercial tools like
4167 <a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
4168 Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
4169 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
4170 Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
4171 more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
4172 is easily tracked.  Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
4173 I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
4174 wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
4175 track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
4176 police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
4177 of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
4178 of government officials...</p>
4179
4180 <p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
4181 script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
4182 the GSM network.  It will only collect one frequency at the time,
4183 while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
4184 phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
4185 program.  Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
4186 simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
4187 parser code.  I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
4188 one frequency?</p>
4189
4190       </div>
4191       <div class="tags">
4192
4193
4194         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4195
4196
4197       </div>
4198     </div>
4199     <div class="padding"></div>
4200
4201     <div class="entry">
4202       <div class="title">
4203         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_is_now_available.html">Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available</a>
4204       </div>
4205       <div class="date">
4206         25th July 2017
4207       </div>
4208       <div class="body">
4209         <p align="center"><img align="center" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-07-25-debian-handbook-nb-testprint.png"/></p>
4210
4211 <p>I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of
4212 "<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian Administrator's
4213 Handbook</a>".  This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and
4214 I am very happy to hold the result in my hand.   We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition
4215 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">is available
4216 from lulu.com</a>.  If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list
4217 price.  The book is also available for download in electronic form as
4218 PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be
4219 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/browse/nb-NO/stable/">read online
4220 as a web page</a>.</p>
4221
4222 <p>This is the second book I publish (the first was the book
4223 "<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a>" by Lawrence Lessig
4224 in
4225 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">English</a>,
4226 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">French</a>
4227 and
4228 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Norwegian
4229 Bokmål</a>), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this
4230 project.  I hope
4231 "<a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/rapha%C3%ABl-hertzog-and-roland-mas/h%C3%A5ndbok-for-debian-administratoren/paperback/product-23262290.html">Håndbok
4232 for Debian-administratoren</a>" will be well received.</p>
4233
4234       </div>
4235       <div class="tags">
4236
4237
4238         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4239
4240
4241       </div>
4242     </div>
4243     <div class="padding"></div>
4244
4245     <div class="entry">
4246       <div class="title">
4247         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/N_r_nynorskoversettelsen_svikter_til_eksamen___.html">Når nynorskoversettelsen svikter til eksamen...</a>
4248       </div>
4249       <div class="date">
4250          3rd June 2017
4251       </div>
4252       <div class="body">
4253         <p><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/norge/Krever-at-elever-ma-fa-annullert-eksamen-etter-rot-med-oppgavetekster-622459b.html">Aftenposten
4254 melder i dag</a> om feil i eksamensoppgavene for eksamen i politikk og
4255 menneskerettigheter, der teksten i bokmåls og nynorskutgaven ikke var
4256 like.  Oppgaveteksten er gjengitt i artikkelen, og jeg ble nysgjerring
4257 på om den fri oversetterløsningen
4258 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium</a> ville gjort en bedre
4259 jobb enn Utdanningsdirektoratet.  Det kan se slik ut.</p>
4260
4261 <p>Her er bokmålsoppgaven fra eksamenen:</p>
4262
4263 <blockquote>
4264 <p>Drøft utfordringene knyttet til nasjonalstatenes og andre aktørers
4265 rolle og muligheter til å håndtere internasjonale utfordringer, som
4266 for eksempel flykningekrisen.</p>
4267
4268 <p>Vedlegge er eksempler på tekster som kan gi relevante perspektiver
4269 på temaet:</p>
4270 <ol>
4271 <li>Flykningeregnskapet 2016, UNHCR og IDMC
4272 <li>«Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015
4273 </ol>
4274
4275 </blockquote>
4276
4277 <p>Dette oversetter Apertium slik:</p>
4278
4279 <blockquote>
4280 <p>Drøft utfordringane knytte til nasjonalstatane sine og rolla til
4281 andre aktørar og høve til å handtera internasjonale utfordringar, som
4282 til dømes *flykningekrisen.</p>
4283
4284 <p>Vedleggja er døme på tekster som kan gje relevante perspektiv på
4285 temaet:</p>
4286
4287 <ol>
4288 <li>*Flykningeregnskapet 2016, *UNHCR og *IDMC</li>
4289 <li>«*Grenseløst Europa for fall» A-Magasinet, 26. november 2015</li>
4290 </ol>
4291
4292 </blockquote>
4293
4294 <p>Ord som ikke ble forstått er markert med stjerne (*), og trenger
4295 ekstra språksjekk.  Men ingen ord er forsvunnet, slik det var i
4296 oppgaven elevene fikk presentert på eksamen.  Jeg mistenker dog at
4297 "andre aktørers rolle og muligheter til ..." burde vært oversatt til
4298 "rolla til andre aktørar og deira høve til ..." eller noe slikt, men
4299 det er kanskje flisespikking.  Det understreker vel bare at det alltid
4300 trengs korrekturlesning etter automatisk oversettelse.</p>
4301
4302       </div>
4303       <div class="tags">
4304
4305
4306         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
4307
4308
4309       </div>
4310     </div>
4311     <div class="padding"></div>
4312
4313     <div class="entry">
4314       <div class="title">
4315         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html">Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself...</a>
4316       </div>
4317       <div class="date">
4318          9th March 2017
4319       </div>
4320       <div class="body">
4321         <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux
4322 computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine
4323 was experiencing NFS hang.  If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a
4324 file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the
4325 shell) will hang too.  So you want to be able to detect this without
4326 risking the detection process getting stuck too.  It has not been
4327 obvious how to do this.  When the hang has lasted a while, it is
4328 possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p>
4329
4330 <p><blockquote>
4331 nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying
4332 <br>nfs: server nfsserver OK
4333 </blockquote></p>
4334
4335 <p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to
4336 be sure looking in dmesg is going to work.  If there are lots of other
4337 messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they
4338 are noticed.</p>
4339
4340 <p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel
4341 code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect
4342 it.  The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every
4343 time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg.  And after digging a
4344 bit further, I discovered that this value show up in
4345 /proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p>
4346
4347 <p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the
4348 same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the
4349 mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine.
4350 I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount
4351 points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem
4352 view), but that does not worry me.</p>
4353
4354 <p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p>
4355
4356 <p><blockquote><pre>
4357 [...]
4358 device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3
4359 device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1
4360         opts:   rw,vers=3,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,namlen=255,acregmin=3,acregmax=60,acdirmin=30,acdirmax=60,soft,nolock,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=129.240.3.145,mountvers=3,mountport=4048,mountproto=udp,local_lock=all
4361         age:    7863311
4362         caps:   caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255
4363         sec:    flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1
4364         events: 61063112 732346265 1028140 35486205 16220064 8162542 761447191 71714012 37189 3891185 45561809 110486139 4850138 420353 15449177 296502 52736725 13523379 0 52182 9016896 1231 0 0 0 0 0
4365         bytes:  166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809
4366         RPC iostats version: 1.0  p/v: 100003/3 (nfs)
4367         xprt:   tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820
4368         per-op statistics
4369                 NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4370              GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132
4371              SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943
4372               LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511
4373               ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140
4374             READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118
4375                 READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693
4376                WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771
4377               CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398
4378                MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245
4379              SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917
4380                MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304
4381               REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636
4382                RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002
4383               RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288
4384                 LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579
4385              READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917
4386          READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937
4387               FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022
4388               FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1
4389             PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0
4390               COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4391
4392 device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc
4393 [...]
4394 </pre></blockquote></p>
4395
4396 <p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list.
4397 It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system
4398 operation.  Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts.  If these
4399 numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS
4400 hang.  Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right
4401 away.  The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a
4402 while.  The exact timeout value depend on the setup.  For example the
4403 defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the
4404 timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS
4405 mount options.</p>
4406
4407 <p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat
4408 Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/.
4409 But according to
4410 <ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris
4411 10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c'
4412 command can be used to get these timeout values.  But this do not work
4413 on Linux, as far as I can tell.  I
4414 <ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>,
4415 but have not seen any replies yet.</p>
4416
4417 <p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is
4418 experiencing NFS hangs?  Is there a way to detect which processes are
4419 affected?  Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the
4420 network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared?  I would very
4421 much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p>
4422
4423       </div>
4424       <div class="tags">
4425
4426
4427         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
4428
4429
4430       </div>
4431     </div>
4432     <div class="padding"></div>
4433
4434     <div class="entry">
4435       <div class="title">
4436         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html">Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress</a>
4437       </div>
4438       <div class="date">
4439          3rd March 2017
4440       </div>
4441       <div class="body">
4442         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
4443 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
4444 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
4445 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
4446 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
4447 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
4448 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
4449 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
4450 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
4451
4452 <p><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
4453
4454 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
4455 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
4456 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
4457 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
4458 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
4459 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
4460 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
4461 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
4462
4463       </div>
4464       <div class="tags">
4465
4466
4467         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4468
4469
4470       </div>
4471     </div>
4472     <div class="padding"></div>
4473
4474     <div class="entry">
4475       <div class="title">
4476         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
4477       </div>
4478       <div class="date">
4479          1st March 2017
4480       </div>
4481       <div class="body">
4482         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
4483 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
4484 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
4485 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
4486 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
4487 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
4488 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
4489 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
4490 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
4491 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
4492 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
4493
4494 <blockquote><pre>
4495 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
4496   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
4497   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
4498      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
4499      sleep 1; \
4500   done
4501 300
4502 0+1 oppføringer inn
4503 0+1 oppføringer ut
4504 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
4505 4
4506 8
4507 12
4508 17
4509 21
4510 %
4511 </pre></blockquote>
4512
4513 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
4514 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
4515 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
4516 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
4517
4518 <blockquote><pre>
4519 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
4520   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
4521   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
4522      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
4523      sleep 1; \
4524   done
4525 1079
4526 0+1 oppføringer inn
4527 0+1 oppføringer ut
4528 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
4529 433
4530 1028
4531 1031
4532 1035
4533 1038
4534 %
4535 </pre></blockquote>
4536
4537 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
4538 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
4539
4540 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
4541 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
4542 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
4543 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
4544 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
4545 post.</p>
4546
4547       </div>
4548       <div class="tags">
4549
4550
4551         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4552
4553
4554       </div>
4555     </div>
4556     <div class="padding"></div>
4557
4558     <div class="entry">
4559       <div class="title">
4560         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
4561       </div>
4562       <div class="date">
4563          9th January 2017
4564       </div>
4565       <div class="body">
4566         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
4567 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
4568 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
4569 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
4570 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
4571 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
4572 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
4573 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
4574 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
4575 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
4576 this:
4577
4578 <p><pre>
4579 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
4580  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
4581  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
4582  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
4583  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
4584  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
4585  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
4586  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
4587  8  * * *
4588  9  * * *
4589 [...]
4590 </pre></p>
4591
4592 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
4593 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
4594 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
4595 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
4596 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
4597 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
4598 traceroute request.</p>
4599
4600 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
4601 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
4602 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
4603 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
4604 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
4605
4606 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
4607 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
4608 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
4609 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
4610 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
4611 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
4612 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
4613 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
4614 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
4615
4616 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
4617 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
4618 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
4619 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
4620 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
4621 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
4622 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
4623 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
4624 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
4625 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
4626 render the page (in HAR format using
4627 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
4628 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
4629 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
4630 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
4631 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
4632
4633 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
4634 src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
4635
4636 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
4637 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
4638 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
4639 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
4640 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
4641 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
4642 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
4643 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
4644 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
4645 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
4646 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
4647 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
4648 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
4649 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
4650
4651 <p align="center"><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
4652 src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
4653
4654 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
4655 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
4656 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
4657 question.
4658 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
4659 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
4660 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
4661 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
4662 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
4663 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
4664 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
4665
4666 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
4667 src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
4668
4669 <p>In the process, I came across the
4670 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
4671 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
4672 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
4673 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
4674 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
4675 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
4676 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
4677 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
4678 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
4679 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
4680 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
4681 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
4682 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
4683 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
4684
4685 <p align="center"><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
4686 src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
4687
4688 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
4689 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
4690 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
4691 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
4692
4693 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
4694 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
4695 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
4696 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
4697 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
4698 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
4699 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
4700
4701 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
4702 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
4703 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
4704 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
4705 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
4706 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
4707 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
4708
4709 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
4710 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
4711 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
4712 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
4713
4714 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4715 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4716 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4717
4718       </div>
4719       <div class="tags">
4720
4721
4722         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4723
4724
4725       </div>
4726     </div>
4727     <div class="padding"></div>
4728
4729     <div class="entry">
4730       <div class="title">
4731         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
4732       </div>
4733       <div class="date">
4734         23rd December 2016
4735       </div>
4736       <div class="body">
4737         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
4738 readers probably know, I have been working on the
4739 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
4740 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
4741 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
4742 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
4743 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
4744 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
4745 metadata format.  And today,
4746 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
4747 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
4748 ie using fnmatch():</p>
4749
4750 <p><pre>
4751 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
4752   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
4753 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
4754 Name: pymissile
4755 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
4756 Package: pymissile
4757 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
4758 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
4759 Name: libnxt
4760 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
4761 Package: libnxt
4762 ---
4763 Identifier: t2n [generic]
4764 Name: t2n
4765 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
4766 Package: t2n
4767 ---
4768 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
4769 Name: python-nxt
4770 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
4771 Package: python-nxt
4772 ---
4773 Identifier: nbc [generic]
4774 Name: nbc
4775 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
4776 Package: nbc
4777 %
4778 </pre></p>
4779
4780 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
4781 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
4782
4783 <p><pre>
4784 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
4785 pymissile
4786 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
4787 libnxt
4788 nbc
4789 python-nxt
4790 t2n
4791 %
4792 </pre></p>
4793
4794 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
4795 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
4796
4797 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
4798 make the most of the hardware they have, please help
4799 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
4800 metadata for your package following the guidelines</a> documented in
4801 the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such information, among the
4802 several hundred hardware specific packages in Debian. The Isenkram
4803 database on the other hand contain 101 packages, mostly related to USB
4804 dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware mapping in AppStream are
4805 LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as part of my involvement in
4806 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
4807 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
4808 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
4809 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
4810 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
4811 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
4812 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
4813 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
4814 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
4815
4816 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4817 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4818 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4819
4820       </div>
4821       <div class="tags">
4822
4823
4824         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4825
4826
4827       </div>
4828     </div>
4829     <div class="padding"></div>
4830
4831     <div class="entry">
4832       <div class="title">
4833         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
4834       </div>
4835       <div class="date">
4836         20th December 2016
4837       </div>
4838       <div class="body">
4839         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
4840 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
4841 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
4842 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
4843 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
4844 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
4845 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
4846 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
4847 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
4848 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
4849
4850 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
4851
4852 <p><pre>
4853 % isenkram-lookup
4854 bluez
4855 cheese
4856 ethtool
4857 fprintd
4858 fprintd-demo
4859 gkrellm-thinkbat
4860 hdapsd
4861 libpam-fprintd
4862 pidgin-blinklight
4863 thinkfan
4864 tlp
4865 tp-smapi-dkms
4866 tp-smapi-source
4867 tpb
4868 %
4869 </pre></p>
4870
4871 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
4872 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
4873 I have all the firmware my machine need:
4874
4875 <p><pre>
4876 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4877 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
4878 %
4879 </pre></p>
4880
4881 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
4882 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
4883 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
4884 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
4885 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
4886 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
4887 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
4888 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
4889
4890 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
4891 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
4892 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
4893
4894 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
4895 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
4896 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
4897 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
4898 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
4899 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
4900 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
4901 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
4902 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
4903 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
4904 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
4905 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
4906 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
4907 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
4908 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
4909 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
4910 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
4911 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
4912 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
4913 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
4914 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
4915 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
4916 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
4917 zd1211-firmware</p>
4918
4919 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
4920 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
4921 maintainer to
4922 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
4923 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
4924 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
4925 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
4926
4927 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
4928 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
4929 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
4930 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
4931 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
4932
4933       </div>
4934       <div class="tags">
4935
4936
4937         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4938
4939
4940       </div>
4941     </div>
4942     <div class="padding"></div>
4943
4944     <div class="entry">
4945       <div class="title">
4946         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
4947       </div>
4948       <div class="date">
4949         11th December 2016
4950       </div>
4951       <div class="body">
4952         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
4953
4954 <p>In my early years, I played
4955 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
4956 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
4957 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
4958 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
4959 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
4960 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
4961 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
4962 small.</p>
4963
4964 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
4965 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
4966 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
4967 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
4968 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
4969 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
4970 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
4971 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
4972 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
4973
4974 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
4975 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
4976 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
4977 advantages of the
4978 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
4979 where information about each planet is easily available with common
4980 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
4981 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
4982 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
4983 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
4984 after less then a week.</p>
4985
4986 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
4987 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
4988 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
4989
4990 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4991 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4992 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4993
4994       </div>
4995       <div class="tags">
4996
4997
4998         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
4999
5000
5001       </div>
5002     </div>
5003     <div class="padding"></div>
5004
5005     <div class="entry">
5006       <div class="title">
5007         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
5008       </div>
5009       <div class="date">
5010         25th November 2016
5011       </div>
5012       <div class="body">
5013         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
5014 installation system, observing how using
5015 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
5016 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
5017 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
5018 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
5019 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
5020 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
5021 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
5022 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
5023 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
5024 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
5025 up the process make perfect sense.
5026
5027 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
5028 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
5029 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
5030 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
5031 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
5032 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
5033 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
5034 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
5035 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
5036 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
5037
5038 <blockquote><pre>
5039 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
5040 </pre></blockquote>
5041
5042 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
5043 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
5044 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
5045 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
5046 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
5047 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
5048 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
5049 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
5050 tested its impact.</p>
5051
5052
5053       </div>
5054       <div class="tags">
5055
5056
5057         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5058
5059
5060       </div>
5061     </div>
5062     <div class="padding"></div>
5063
5064     <div class="entry">
5065       <div class="title">
5066         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
5067       </div>
5068       <div class="date">
5069         24th November 2016
5070       </div>
5071       <div class="body">
5072         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
5073 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
5074 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
5075 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
5076 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
5077 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
5078 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
5079 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
5080 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
5081 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
5082 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
5083 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
5084 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
5085 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
5086 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
5087 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
5088 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
5089 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
5090 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
5091
5092 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
5093 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
5094 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
5095 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
5096 api.apertium.org.  Se
5097 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
5098 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
5099 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
5100 nynorsk.</p>
5101
5102 <hr/>
5103
5104 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
5105 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
5106 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
5107 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
5108 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
5109 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
5110 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
5111 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
5112 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
5113 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
5114 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
5115 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
5116 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
5117 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
5118 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
5119 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
5120 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
5121 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
5122 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
5123
5124 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
5125 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
5126 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
5127 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
5128 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
5129 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
5130 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
5131 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
5132 nynorsk.</p>
5133
5134       </div>
5135       <div class="tags">
5136
5137
5138         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
5139
5140
5141       </div>
5142     </div>
5143     <div class="padding"></div>
5144
5145     <div class="entry">
5146       <div class="title">
5147         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
5148       </div>
5149       <div class="date">
5150         13th November 2016
5151       </div>
5152       <div class="body">
5153         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
5154 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
5155 multi-threaded program, finally
5156 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
5157 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
5158 months since
5159 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
5160 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
5161 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
5162 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
5163 JavaScript libraries.</p>
5164
5165 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
5166
5167 <p><blockquote>
5168 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
5169 </blockquote></p>
5170
5171 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
5172 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
5173 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
5174 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
5175 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
5176
5177 <p><blockquote>
5178 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
5179 </blockquote></p>
5180
5181 <p>See the project home page and the
5182 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
5183 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
5184 working.</p>
5185
5186       </div>
5187       <div class="tags">
5188
5189
5190         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5191
5192
5193       </div>
5194     </div>
5195     <div class="padding"></div>
5196
5197     <div class="entry">
5198       <div class="title">
5199         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
5200       </div>
5201       <div class="date">
5202          4th November 2016
5203       </div>
5204       <div class="body">
5205         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
5206 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
5207 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
5208 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
5209 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
5210 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
5211 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
5212 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
5213 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
5214 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
5215 and had
5216 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
5217 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
5218 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
5219 loved ones. :)</p>
5220
5221 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
5222 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
5223 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
5224 building
5225 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
5226 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
5227 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
5228 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
5229 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
5230 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
5231 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
5232 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
5233
5234 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
5235
5236 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
5237 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
5238 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
5239 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
5240 the battery status run low:</p>
5241
5242 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
5243    <source src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
5244 </video></p>
5245
5246 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
5247 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
5248
5249 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
5250 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
5251 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
5252 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
5253 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
5254 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
5255 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
5256 should.</p>
5257
5258       </div>
5259       <div class="tags">
5260
5261
5262         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
5263
5264
5265       </div>
5266     </div>
5267     <div class="padding"></div>
5268
5269     <div class="entry">
5270       <div class="title">
5271         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
5272       </div>
5273       <div class="date">
5274         10th October 2016
5275       </div>
5276       <div class="body">
5277         <p>In July
5278 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
5279 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
5280 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
5281 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
5282
5283 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
5284 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
5285 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
5286 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
5287 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
5288 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
5289 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
5290 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
5291 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
5292 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
5293 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
5294 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
5295 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
5296 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
5297 time.</p>
5298
5299 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
5300 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
5301 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
5302 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
5303 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
5304 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
5305 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
5306
5307 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
5308 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
5309 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
5310 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
5311 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
5312 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
5313 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
5314 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
5315 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
5316 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
5317
5318 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
5319
5320 <ol>
5321
5322 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
5323 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
5324 know, so you need to install it.
5325
5326 <pre>
5327 apt install git tor chromium
5328 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
5329 </pre></li>
5330
5331 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
5332 block below.</li>
5333
5334 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
5335 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
5336
5337 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
5338 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
5339 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
5340 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
5341 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
5342
5343 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
5344 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
5345 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
5346 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
5347 a associated contact database.</li>
5348
5349 </ol>
5350
5351 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
5352 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
5353 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
5354 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
5355 example
5356 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
5357 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
5358 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
5359 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
5360 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
5361 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
5362 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
5363 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
5364 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
5365 working on Debian Stable.</p>
5366
5367 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
5368 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
5369 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
5370
5371 <pre>
5372 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
5373 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
5374 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
5375 --- a/js/background.js
5376 +++ b/js/background.js
5377 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
5378          });
5379      });
5380
5381 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
5382 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
5383      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
5384 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
5385 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
5386      var messageReceiver;
5387      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
5388          if (messageReceiver) {
5389 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
5390 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
5391 --- a/js/expire.js
5392 +++ b/js/expire.js
5393 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
5394  ;(function() {
5395      'use strict';
5396 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
5397 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
5398
5399      window.extension = window.extension || {};
5400
5401 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
5402 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
5403 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
5404 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
5405 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
5406              return {
5407                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
5408                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
5409 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
5410 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
5411 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
5412              };
5413          },
5414          clearQR: function() {
5415 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
5416 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
5417 --- a/options.html
5418 +++ b/options.html
5419 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
5420          &lt;div class='nav'>
5421            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
5422            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
5423 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
5424 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
5425 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
5426 +
5427 +         &lt;/div>
5428            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
5429            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
5430            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
5431 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
5432 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
5433 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
5434 +#!/bin/sh
5435 +set -e
5436 +cd $(dirname $0)
5437 +mkdir -p userdata
5438 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
5439 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
5440 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
5441 +fi
5442 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
5443 +exec chromium \
5444 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
5445 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
5446 EOF
5447 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
5448 </pre>
5449
5450 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5451 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5452 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5453
5454       </div>
5455       <div class="tags">
5456
5457
5458         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5459
5460
5461       </div>
5462     </div>
5463     <div class="padding"></div>
5464
5465     <div class="entry">
5466       <div class="title">
5467         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
5468       </div>
5469       <div class="date">
5470          7th October 2016
5471       </div>
5472       <div class="body">
5473         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
5474 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
5475 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
5476 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
5477 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
5478 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
5479 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
5480 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
5481 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
5482 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
5483 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
5484 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
5485 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
5486
5487 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
5488 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
5489 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
5490 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
5491 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
5492 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
5493
5494 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
5495 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
5496 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
5497 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
5498 identifiers.</p>
5499
5500 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
5501 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
5502 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
5503 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
5504 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
5505 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
5506 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
5507 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
5508 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
5509 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
5510 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
5511 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
5512 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
5513 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
5514
5515 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
5516 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
5517 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
5518 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
5519 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
5520 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
5521 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
5522
5523 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
5524 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
5525 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
5526 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
5527 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
5528 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
5529 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
5530 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
5531 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
5532 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
5533 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
5534 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
5535 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
5536 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
5537 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
5538 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
5539 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
5540
5541 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
5542 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
5543 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
5544 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
5545 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
5546 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
5547 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
5548
5549 <p><pre>
5550 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
5551     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
5552 </pre></p>
5553
5554 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
5555 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
5556 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
5557 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
5558 to detect this?</p>
5559
5560 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
5561 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
5562 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
5563 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
5564 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
5565 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
5566 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
5567 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
5568 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
5569 directly if no such class exist.</p>
5570
5571 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
5572 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
5573 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
5574
5575 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
5576 please join us on our IRC channel
5577 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
5578 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
5579 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
5580 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
5581
5582 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5583 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5584 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5585
5586       </div>
5587       <div class="tags">
5588
5589
5590         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>.
5591
5592
5593       </div>
5594     </div>
5595     <div class="padding"></div>
5596
5597     <div class="entry">
5598       <div class="title">
5599         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
5600       </div>
5601       <div class="date">
5602         30th August 2016
5603       </div>
5604       <div class="body">
5605         <p>In April we
5606 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
5607 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
5608 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
5609 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
5610 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
5611 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
5612 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
5613 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
5614 contributing using
5615 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
5616 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
5617 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
5618 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
5619 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
5620 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
5621 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
5622
5623 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
5624 electronic form.</p>
5625
5626       </div>
5627       <div class="tags">
5628
5629
5630         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5631
5632
5633       </div>
5634     </div>
5635     <div class="padding"></div>
5636
5637     <div class="entry">
5638       <div class="title">
5639         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
5640       </div>
5641       <div class="date">
5642         11th August 2016
5643       </div>
5644       <div class="body">
5645         <p>This summer, I read a great article
5646 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
5647 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
5648 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
5649 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
5650 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
5651 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
5652 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
5653 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
5654 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
5655 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
5656 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
5657 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
5658
5659 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
5660 get the system into Debian.  I
5661 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
5662 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
5663 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
5664 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
5665 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
5666 profiling information included in the source package.
5667 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
5668
5669 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
5670 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
5671
5672 <p><blockquote><pre>
5673 coz run --- program-to-run
5674 </pre></blockquote></p>
5675
5676 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
5677 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
5678 most, use a web browser and either point it to
5679 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
5680 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
5681 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
5682 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
5683 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
5684 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
5685 targeted experiments.</p>
5686
5687 <p>A video published by ACM
5688 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
5689 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
5690 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
5691 titled
5692 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
5693 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
5694
5695 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
5696 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
5697 because it uses a
5698 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
5699 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
5700 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
5701 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
5702
5703 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
5704 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
5705 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
5706 C++ libraries.</p>
5707
5708       </div>
5709       <div class="tags">
5710
5711
5712         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
5713
5714
5715       </div>
5716     </div>
5717     <div class="padding"></div>
5718
5719     <div class="entry">
5720       <div class="title">
5721         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
5722       </div>
5723       <div class="date">
5724          7th July 2016
5725       </div>
5726       <div class="body">
5727         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
5728 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
5729 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
5730 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
5731 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
5732 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
5733 microphone The initial idea had been to just
5734 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
5735 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
5736 until a few days ago.</p>
5737
5738 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
5739 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
5740 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
5741 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
5742 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
5743 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
5744 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
5745
5746 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
5747 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
5748 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
5749 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
5750 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
5751 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
5752 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
5753 him.</p>
5754
5755 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
5756 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
5757 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
5758 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
5759 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
5760 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
5761 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
5762 devices it would work for.</p>
5763
5764 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
5765 followed some instructions
5766 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
5767 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
5768 machine with Debian testing:</p>
5769
5770 <p><pre>
5771 adb reboot-bootloader
5772 fastboot oem rebootRUU
5773 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
5774 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
5775 fastboot reboot
5776 </pre></p>
5777
5778 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
5779 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
5780 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
5781 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
5782 too.</p>
5783
5784 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
5785 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
5786 like this:</p>
5787
5788 <p><pre>
5789 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
5790 </pre>
5791
5792 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
5793 this:</p>
5794
5795 <p><pre>
5796 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
5797 </pre></p>
5798
5799 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
5800 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
5801 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
5802 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
5803 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
5804
5805       </div>
5806       <div class="tags">
5807
5808
5809         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
5810
5811
5812       </div>
5813     </div>
5814     <div class="padding"></div>
5815
5816     <div class="entry">
5817       <div class="title">
5818         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
5819       </div>
5820       <div class="date">
5821          3rd July 2016
5822       </div>
5823       <div class="body">
5824         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
5825 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
5826 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
5827 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
5828 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
5829 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
5830 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
5831 Github source, compared it to the source in
5832 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
5833 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
5834 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
5835 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
5836 the recipe how I did it.</p>
5837
5838 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
5839
5840 <pre>
5841 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
5842 </pre>
5843
5844 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
5845 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
5846
5847 <pre>
5848 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
5849 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
5850 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
5851 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
5852 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
5853          });
5854      });
5855
5856 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
5857 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
5858 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
5859 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
5860      var messageReceiver;
5861      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
5862          if (messageReceiver) {
5863 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
5864 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
5865 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
5866 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
5867  ;(function() {
5868      'use strict';
5869 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
5870 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
5871
5872      window.extension = window.extension || {};
5873
5874 EOF
5875 </pre>
5876
5877 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
5878 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
5879 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
5880 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
5881
5882 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
5883 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
5884
5885 <pre>
5886 #!/bin/sh
5887 cd $(dirname $0)
5888 mkdir -p userdata
5889 exec chromium \
5890   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
5891   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
5892 </pre>
5893
5894 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
5895 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
5896 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
5897 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
5898 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
5899
5900 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
5901 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
5902 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
5903 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
5904 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
5905 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
5906 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
5907 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
5908 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
5909 Signal from my laptop.
5910
5911 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
5912 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
5913 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
5914 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
5915 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
5916 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
5917 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
5918 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
5919 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
5920 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
5921 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
5922 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
5923
5924 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
5925 on this topic in
5926 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
5927 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
5928 phone</a>.</p>
5929
5930       </div>
5931       <div class="tags">
5932
5933
5934         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5935
5936
5937       </div>
5938     </div>
5939     <div class="padding"></div>
5940
5941     <div class="entry">
5942       <div class="title">
5943         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
5944       </div>
5945       <div class="date">
5946          6th June 2016
5947       </div>
5948       <div class="body">
5949         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
5950 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
5951 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
5952 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
5953 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
5954 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
5955 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
5956 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
5957 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
5958
5959 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
5960 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
5961 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
5962 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
5963 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
5964 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
5965 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
5966
5967 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
5968 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
5969 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
5970 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
5971 toten and parole.</p>
5972
5973 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
5974 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
5975 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
5976 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
5977 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
5978 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
5979 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
5980 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
5981 formats.</p>
5982
5983       </div>
5984       <div class="tags">
5985
5986
5987         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
5988
5989
5990       </div>
5991     </div>
5992     <div class="padding"></div>
5993
5994     <div class="entry">
5995       <div class="title">
5996         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
5997       </div>
5998       <div class="date">
5999          5th June 2016
6000       </div>
6001       <div class="body">
6002         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
6003 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
6004 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
6005 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
6006 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
6007 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
6008 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
6009 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
6010 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
6011 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
6012 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
6013 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
6014 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
6015 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
6016 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
6017 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
6018 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
6019 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
6020 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
6021 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
6022
6023 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
6024 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
6025 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
6026 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
6027 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
6028 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
6029 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
6030 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
6031 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
6032 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
6033 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
6034 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
6035 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
6036 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
6037
6038 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
6039 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
6040 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
6041 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
6042 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
6043 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
6044 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
6045 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
6046
6047 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
6048 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
6049 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
6050 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
6051 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
6052 information is collected from
6053 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
6054 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
6055 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
6056 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
6057 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
6058 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
6059 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
6060 type (preferably
6061 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
6062 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
6063 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
6064 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
6065
6066 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
6067 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
6068 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
6069
6070 <p><blockquote><pre>
6071 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
6072 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
6073   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
6074     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
6075     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
6076     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
6077   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
6078 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
6079 </pre></blockquote></p>
6080
6081 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
6082 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
6083 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
6084 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
6085
6086 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
6087 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
6088 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
6089
6090 <p><blockquote><pre>
6091 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
6092 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
6093 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
6094 %
6095 </pre></blockquote></p>
6096
6097 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
6098 MimeType= line.</p>
6099
6100 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
6101 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
6102 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
6103 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
6104 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
6105 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
6106 fixed. :)</p>
6107
6108       </div>
6109       <div class="tags">
6110
6111
6112         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6113
6114
6115       </div>
6116     </div>
6117     <div class="padding"></div>
6118
6119     <div class="entry">
6120       <div class="title">
6121         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
6122       </div>
6123       <div class="date">
6124         25th May 2016
6125       </div>
6126       <div class="body">
6127         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
6128 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
6129 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
6130 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
6131 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
6132 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
6133 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
6134 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
6135 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
6136 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
6137 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
6138 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
6139
6140 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
6141 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
6142 is going away and is generally being replaced by
6143 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
6144 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
6145 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
6146 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
6147 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
6148 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
6149 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
6150 and see if it is recognised.</p>
6151
6152 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
6153 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
6154 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
6155
6156 <p><blockquote><pre>
6157 % isenkram-lookup
6158 bluez
6159 cheese
6160 fprintd
6161 fprintd-demo
6162 gkrellm-thinkbat
6163 hdapsd
6164 libpam-fprintd
6165 pidgin-blinklight
6166 thinkfan
6167 tleds
6168 tp-smapi-dkms
6169 tp-smapi-source
6170 tpb
6171 %p
6172 </pre></blockquote></p>
6173
6174 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
6175 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
6176 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
6177 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
6178 See
6179 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
6180 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
6181
6182       </div>
6183       <div class="tags">
6184
6185
6186         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6187
6188
6189       </div>
6190     </div>
6191     <div class="padding"></div>
6192
6193     <div class="entry">
6194       <div class="title">
6195         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
6196       </div>
6197       <div class="date">
6198         23rd May 2016
6199       </div>
6200       <div class="body">
6201         <p>Yesterday I updated the
6202 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
6203 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
6204 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
6205 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
6206 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
6207 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
6208 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
6209 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
6210 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
6211 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
6212
6213 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
6214 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
6215 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
6216 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
6217 capacity.</p>
6218
6219 <p align="center"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
6220
6221 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
6222 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
6223 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
6224 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
6225
6226 <p align="center"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
6227
6228 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
6229 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
6230 shrinking. :(</p>
6231
6232 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
6233 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
6234 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
6235 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
6236 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
6237 machine.</p>
6238
6239 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
6240 check out the
6241 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
6242 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
6243 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
6244 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
6245 Patches are very welcome.</p>
6246
6247 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6248 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6249 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6250
6251       </div>
6252       <div class="tags">
6253
6254
6255         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6256
6257
6258       </div>
6259     </div>
6260     <div class="padding"></div>
6261
6262     <div class="entry">
6263       <div class="title">
6264         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
6265       </div>
6266       <div class="date">
6267         12th May 2016
6268       </div>
6269       <div class="body">
6270         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
6271 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
6272 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
6273 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
6274 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
6275 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6276 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
6277 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
6278 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
6279 great if you could help out with
6280 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
6281 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
6282
6283       </div>
6284       <div class="tags">
6285
6286
6287         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6288
6289
6290       </div>
6291     </div>
6292     <div class="padding"></div>
6293
6294     <div class="entry">
6295       <div class="title">
6296         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
6297       </div>
6298       <div class="date">
6299          8th May 2016
6300       </div>
6301       <div class="body">
6302         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
6303 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
6304
6305 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
6306 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
6307 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
6308 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
6309 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
6310 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
6311 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
6312 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
6313 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
6314 players.</p>
6315
6316 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
6317 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
6318 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
6319 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
6320 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
6321 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
6322 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
6323 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
6324 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
6325 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
6326 support most file formats.</p>
6327
6328 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
6329 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
6330 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
6331 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
6332 listed first in the table.</p>
6333
6334 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
6335 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
6336 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
6337 support?</p>
6338
6339       </div>
6340       <div class="tags">
6341
6342
6343         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
6344
6345
6346       </div>
6347     </div>
6348     <div class="padding"></div>
6349
6350     <div class="entry">
6351       <div class="title">
6352         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
6353       </div>
6354       <div class="date">
6355          4th May 2016
6356       </div>
6357       <div class="body">
6358         A friend of mine made me aware of
6359 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
6360 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
6361 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
6362
6363 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
6364 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
6365 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
6366 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
6367 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
6368 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
6369 production started.</p>
6370
6371 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
6372 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
6373 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
6374
6375       </div>
6376       <div class="tags">
6377
6378
6379         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6380
6381
6382       </div>
6383     </div>
6384     <div class="padding"></div>
6385
6386     <div class="entry">
6387       <div class="title">
6388         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
6389       </div>
6390       <div class="date">
6391         10th April 2016
6392       </div>
6393       <div class="body">
6394         <p>During this weekends
6395 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
6396 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
6397 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
6398 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
6399 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
6400 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
6401 contributing using
6402 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
6403 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
6404 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
6405 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
6406 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
6407 contributors</a>.</p>
6408
6409 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
6410 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
6411 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
6412 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
6413 available for many more languages.</p>
6414
6415       </div>
6416       <div class="tags">
6417
6418
6419         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6420
6421
6422       </div>
6423     </div>
6424     <div class="padding"></div>
6425
6426     <div class="entry">
6427       <div class="title">
6428         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
6429       </div>
6430       <div class="date">
6431          7th April 2016
6432       </div>
6433       <div class="body">
6434         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
6435 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
6436 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
6437 But I might be wrong.</p>
6438
6439 <p>According to
6440 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
6441 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
6442 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
6443 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
6444 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
6445 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
6446 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
6447 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
6448 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
6449 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
6450
6451 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
6452 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
6453 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
6454 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
6455 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
6456 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
6457 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
6458 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
6459 team status page</a>, and
6460 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
6461 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
6462
6463 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
6464 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
6465 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
6466 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
6467 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
6468 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
6469 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
6470 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
6471 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
6472 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
6473 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
6474 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
6475
6476       </div>
6477       <div class="tags">
6478
6479
6480         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6481
6482
6483       </div>
6484     </div>
6485     <div class="padding"></div>
6486
6487     <div class="entry">
6488       <div class="title">
6489         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
6490       </div>
6491       <div class="date">
6492         23rd March 2016
6493       </div>
6494       <div class="body">
6495         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
6496 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
6497 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
6498 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
6499 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
6500 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
6501 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
6502 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
6503
6504 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
6505 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
6506 and lifetime prediction by running:
6507
6508 <p><pre>
6509 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
6510 </pre></p>
6511
6512 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
6513
6514 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
6515 entry yet):</p>
6516
6517 <p><pre>
6518 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
6519 </pre></p>
6520
6521 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
6522 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
6523 few years of data.</p>
6524
6525 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
6526 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
6527 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
6528 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
6529 know.  The issue is reported as
6530 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
6531 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
6532 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
6533 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
6534 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
6535
6536 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
6537 check out the
6538 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
6539 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
6540 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
6541 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
6542 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
6543
6544       </div>
6545       <div class="tags">
6546
6547
6548         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6549
6550
6551       </div>
6552     </div>
6553     <div class="padding"></div>
6554
6555     <div class="entry">
6556       <div class="title">
6557         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
6558       </div>
6559       <div class="date">
6560         15th March 2016
6561       </div>
6562       <div class="body">
6563         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
6564 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
6565 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
6566 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
6567 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
6568 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
6569 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
6570 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
6571 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
6572 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
6573 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
6574
6575 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
6576 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
6577 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
6578 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
6579 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
6580 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
6581 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
6582 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
6583 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
6584 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
6585 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
6586
6587 <p align="center"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
6588
6589 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
6590 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
6591 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
6592 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
6593 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
6594 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
6595
6596 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
6597 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
6598 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
6599 and graphing.</p>
6600
6601 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
6602 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
6603 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
6604 on
6605 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
6606 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
6607
6608       </div>
6609       <div class="tags">
6610
6611
6612         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6613
6614
6615       </div>
6616     </div>
6617     <div class="padding"></div>
6618
6619     <div class="entry">
6620       <div class="title">
6621         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
6622       </div>
6623       <div class="date">
6624         19th February 2016
6625       </div>
6626       <div class="body">
6627         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
6628 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
6629 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
6630 the code in the package in question, preferably in
6631 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
6632 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
6633
6634 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
6635 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
6636 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
6637 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
6638 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
6639 out what was wrong with
6640 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
6641 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
6642 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
6643 semi-automatically.</p>
6644
6645 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
6646 file based on the code in the source package,
6647 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
6648 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
6649 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
6650 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
6651 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
6652 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
6653 option in
6654 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
6655 blog posts from 2014</a>.
6656
6657 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
6658
6659 <p><pre>
6660 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
6661 </pre></p>
6662
6663 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
6664 this might not be the best option.</p>
6665
6666 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
6667 this approach in
6668 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
6669 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
6670 dpkg-copyright' option:
6671
6672 <p><pre>
6673 cme update dpkg-copyright
6674 </pre></p>
6675
6676 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
6677 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
6678
6679 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
6680 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
6681 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
6682 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
6683 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
6684 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
6685 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
6686 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
6687 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
6688 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
6689
6690 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
6691 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
6692 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
6693 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
6694
6695 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
6696 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
6697 planet.debian.org.</p>
6698
6699 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6700 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6701 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6702
6703 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
6704 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
6705
6706 <p><pre>
6707 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
6708   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
6709 </pre></p>
6710
6711 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
6712 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
6713 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
6714 with my packages in the future.</p>
6715
6716 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
6717 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
6718 command line.</p>
6719
6720       </div>
6721       <div class="tags">
6722
6723
6724         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6725
6726
6727       </div>
6728     </div>
6729     <div class="padding"></div>
6730
6731     <div class="entry">
6732       <div class="title">
6733         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
6734       </div>
6735       <div class="date">
6736          4th February 2016
6737       </div>
6738       <div class="body">
6739         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
6740 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
6741 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
6742 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
6743 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
6744 about. :)</p>
6745
6746 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
6747 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
6748 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
6749 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
6750 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
6751 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
6752
6753 <blockquote><pre>
6754 % apt install appstream
6755 [...]
6756 % apt update
6757 [...]
6758 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
6759   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
6760 firmware-qlogic
6761 %
6762 </pre></blockquote>
6763
6764 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
6765 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
6766 a way appstream can use.</p>
6767
6768 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
6769 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
6770 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
6771 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
6772 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
6773 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
6774
6775 <blockquote><pre>
6776 % apt install appstream
6777 [...]
6778 % apt update
6779 [...]
6780 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
6781   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
6782 bkchem
6783 phototonic
6784 inkscape
6785 shutter
6786 tetzle
6787 geeqie
6788 xia
6789 pinta
6790 gthumb
6791 karbon
6792 comix
6793 mirage
6794 viewnior
6795 postr
6796 ristretto
6797 kolourpaint4
6798 eog
6799 eom
6800 gimagereader
6801 midori
6802 %
6803 </pre></blockquote>
6804
6805 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
6806 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
6807
6808       </div>
6809       <div class="tags">
6810
6811
6812         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6813
6814
6815       </div>
6816     </div>
6817     <div class="padding"></div>
6818
6819     <div class="entry">
6820       <div class="title">
6821         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
6822       </div>
6823       <div class="date">
6824         24th January 2016
6825       </div>
6826       <div class="body">
6827         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
6828 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
6829 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
6830 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
6831 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
6832 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
6833 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
6834 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
6835 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
6836 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
6837 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
6838 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
6839 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
6840 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
6841 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
6842 entities.</p>
6843
6844 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
6845
6846 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
6847 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
6848 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
6849 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
6850 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
6851 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
6852 tool to do so is called
6853 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
6854 discovered it when I read
6855 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
6856 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
6857 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
6858 The python program was in Debian, but
6859 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
6860 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
6861 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
6862 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
6863 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
6864 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
6865 are now included
6866 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
6867
6868 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
6869 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
6870 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
6871 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
6872 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
6873 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
6874 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
6875 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
6876 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
6877 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
6878 about yourself with the services.</p>
6879
6880 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
6881 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
6882 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
6883 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
6884 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
6885 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
6886 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
6887 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
6888 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
6889 things.  A similar technique have been
6890 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
6891 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
6892 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
6893 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
6894 public.</p>
6895
6896 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
6897 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
6898 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
6899 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
6900
6901 <p>(I have uploaded
6902 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
6903 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
6904 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
6905
6906       </div>
6907       <div class="tags">
6908
6909
6910         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
6911
6912
6913       </div>
6914     </div>
6915     <div class="padding"></div>
6916
6917     <div class="entry">
6918       <div class="title">
6919         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
6920       </div>
6921       <div class="date">
6922         15th January 2016
6923       </div>
6924       <div class="body">
6925         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
6926 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
6927 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
6928 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
6929 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
6930 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
6931 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
6932 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
6933 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
6934 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
6935 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
6936 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
6937 was not the first to propose this, as the
6938 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
6939 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
6940 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
6941 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
6942
6943 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
6944 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
6945 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
6946 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
6947 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
6948
6949 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
6950 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
6951 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
6952 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
6953 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
6954 done in /etc/.</p>
6955
6956 <blockquote><pre>
6957 apt install apt-transport-tor
6958 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
6959 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
6960 </pre></blockquote>
6961
6962 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
6963 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
6964 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
6965 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
6966
6967 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
6968 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
6969 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
6970 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
6971 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
6972 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
6973
6974 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
6975 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
6976 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
6977 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
6978 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
6979
6980 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
6981 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
6982 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
6983 system.</p>
6984
6985       </div>
6986       <div class="tags">
6987
6988
6989         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
6990
6991
6992       </div>
6993     </div>
6994     <div class="padding"></div>
6995
6996     <div class="entry">
6997       <div class="title">
6998         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
6999       </div>
7000       <div class="date">
7001         23rd December 2015
7002       </div>
7003       <div class="body">
7004         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
7005 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
7006 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
7007 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
7008 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
7009 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
7010
7011 <p>A few days I came across
7012 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
7013 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
7014 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
7015 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
7016 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
7017 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
7018 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
7019 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
7020 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
7021 discovered the developer
7022 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
7023 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
7024 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
7025 archive.</p>
7026
7027 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
7028 it into Debian, where it currently
7029 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
7030 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
7031
7032 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
7033 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
7034 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
7035 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
7036 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
7037 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
7038 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
7039 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
7040 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
7041 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
7042 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
7043 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
7044
7045 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
7046 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
7047 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
7048 package show up in unstable.</p>
7049
7050       </div>
7051       <div class="tags">
7052
7053
7054         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
7055
7056
7057       </div>
7058     </div>
7059     <div class="padding"></div>
7060
7061     <div class="entry">
7062       <div class="title">
7063         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
7064       </div>
7065       <div class="date">
7066         20th December 2015
7067       </div>
7068       <div class="body">
7069         <p>Around three years ago, I created
7070 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
7071 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
7072 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
7073 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
7074 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
7075 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
7076 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
7077 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
7078 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
7079 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
7080 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
7081 with.</p>
7082
7083 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
7084 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
7085 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
7086 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
7087 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
7088 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
7089 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
7090 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
7091 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
7092 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
7093 Debian version of appstream.</p>
7094
7095 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
7096 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
7097 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
7098 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
7099 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
7100 how do add the required
7101 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
7102 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
7103 this content:</p>
7104
7105 <blockquote><pre>
7106 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
7107 &lt;component&gt;
7108   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
7109   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
7110   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
7111   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
7112   &lt;description&gt;
7113     &lt;p&gt;
7114       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
7115       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
7116       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
7117       launcher.
7118     &lt;/p&gt;
7119   &lt;/description&gt;
7120   &lt;provides&gt;
7121     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
7122   &lt;/provides&gt;
7123 &lt;/component&gt;
7124 </pre></blockquote>
7125
7126 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
7127 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
7128 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
7129 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
7130 0202.</p>
7131
7132 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
7133 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
7134 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
7135 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
7136 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
7137 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
7138 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
7139 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
7140
7141 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
7142 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
7143 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
7144 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
7145 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
7146
7147 <blockquote><pre>
7148 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
7149 </pre></blockquote>
7150
7151 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
7152 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
7153 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
7154 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
7155 question.</p>
7156
7157 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
7158 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
7159
7160 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
7161 try running this command on the command line:</p>
7162
7163 <blockquote><pre>
7164 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
7165 </pre></blockquote>
7166
7167 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
7168 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
7169 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
7170
7171       </div>
7172       <div class="tags">
7173
7174
7175         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7176
7177
7178       </div>
7179     </div>
7180     <div class="padding"></div>
7181
7182     <div class="entry">
7183       <div class="title">
7184         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
7185       </div>
7186       <div class="date">
7187         30th November 2015
7188       </div>
7189       <div class="body">
7190         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
7191 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
7192 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
7193 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
7194 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
7195
7196 <blockquote>
7197
7198 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
7199
7200 <blockquote>
7201 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
7202
7203 The first step is to choose a
7204 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
7205 code.<br/>
7206
7207 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
7208 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
7209
7210 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
7211 work<br/>
7212
7213 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
7214 </blockquote>
7215
7216 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
7217 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
7218 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
7219 0x57</a></small></p>
7220
7221 <p>As the Debian Website
7222 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
7223 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
7224 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
7225 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
7226 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
7227 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
7228 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
7229 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
7230 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
7231 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
7232 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
7233 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
7234 Freedom">FaiF</a>
7235 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
7236 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
7237 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
7238 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
7239 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
7240 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
7241 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
7242 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
7243 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
7244 In March the SFC supported a
7245 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
7246 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
7247 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
7248 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
7249 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
7250 conferences
7251 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
7252 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
7253 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
7254 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
7255 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
7256 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
7257 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
7258 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
7259 Software.</p>
7260
7261 <p>If you support Free Software,
7262 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
7263 what the SFC do, agree with their
7264 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
7265 principles</a>, are happy about their
7266 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
7267 work on a project that is an SFC
7268 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
7269 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
7270 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
7271 Allan Webber</a>,
7272 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
7273 Smith</a>,
7274 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
7275 Bacon</a>, myself and
7276 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
7277 becoming a
7278 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
7279 next week your donation will be
7280 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
7281 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
7282 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
7283 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
7284 social media accounts.</p>
7285
7286 </blockquote>
7287
7288 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
7289 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
7290 supporter too?</p>
7291
7292       </div>
7293       <div class="tags">
7294
7295
7296         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
7297
7298
7299       </div>
7300     </div>
7301     <div class="padding"></div>
7302
7303     <div class="entry">
7304       <div class="title">
7305         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
7306       </div>
7307       <div class="date">
7308         17th November 2015
7309       </div>
7310       <div class="body">
7311         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
7312 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
7313 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
7314 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
7315 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
7316 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
7317 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
7318 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
7319 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
7320 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
7321
7322 <pre>
7323 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
7324       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
7325 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
7326 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
7327 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
7328 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
7329 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
7330 </pre>
7331
7332 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
7333 my old key.</p>
7334
7335 <p>If you signed my old key
7336 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
7337 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
7338 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
7339 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
7340
7341       </div>
7342       <div class="tags">
7343
7344
7345         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
7346
7347
7348       </div>
7349     </div>
7350     <div class="padding"></div>
7351
7352     <div class="entry">
7353       <div class="title">
7354         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
7355       </div>
7356       <div class="date">
7357         24th September 2015
7358       </div>
7359       <div class="body">
7360         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
7361 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
7362 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
7363 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
7364 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
7365 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
7366 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
7367
7368 <img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
7369
7370 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
7371 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
7372 by someone else.  I found
7373 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
7374 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
7375 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
7376 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
7377 from him.  Via
7378 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
7379 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
7380 discovered
7381 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
7382 available in Debian.</p>
7383
7384 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
7385 battery stats ever since. Now my
7386 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
7387 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
7388 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
7389 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
7390
7391 <pre>
7392 #!/bin/sh
7393 # Inspired by
7394 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
7395 # See also
7396 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
7397 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
7398
7399 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
7400     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
7401
7402 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
7403     (
7404         printf "timestamp,"
7405         for f in $files; do
7406             printf "%s," $f
7407         done
7408         echo
7409     ) > "$logfile"
7410 fi
7411
7412 log_battery() {
7413     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
7414     # when several log processes run in parallel.
7415     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
7416         for f in $files; do \
7417             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
7418         done)
7419     echo "$msg"
7420 }
7421
7422 cd /sys/class/power_supply
7423
7424 for bat in BAT*; do
7425     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
7426 done
7427 </pre>
7428
7429 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
7430 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
7431 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
7432 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
7433 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
7434 The code for the Debian package
7435 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
7436 available on github</a>.</p>
7437
7438 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
7439
7440 <pre>
7441 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
7442 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
7443 [...]
7444 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
7445 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
7446 </pre>
7447
7448 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
7449 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
7450 battery.</p>
7451
7452 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
7453 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
7454 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
7455 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
7456 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
7457 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
7458 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
7459 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
7460 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
7461 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
7462 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
7463 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
7464 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
7465 Linux too.</p>
7466
7467 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
7468 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
7469 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
7470 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
7471 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
7472 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
7473 load).</p>
7474
7475 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
7476 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
7477 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
7478 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
7479 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
7480 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
7481 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
7482 those.</p>
7483
7484 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
7485 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
7486 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
7487 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
7488 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
7489 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
7490 specific.</p>
7491
7492       </div>
7493       <div class="tags">
7494
7495
7496         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7497
7498
7499       </div>
7500     </div>
7501     <div class="padding"></div>
7502
7503     <div class="entry">
7504       <div class="title">
7505         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
7506       </div>
7507       <div class="date">
7508          5th July 2015
7509       </div>
7510       <div class="body">
7511         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
7512 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
7513 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
7514 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
7515 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
7516 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
7517 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
7518 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
7519 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
7520 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
7521 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
7522
7523 <p>One tip I got was to use the
7524 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
7525 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
7526 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
7527 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
7528 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
7529 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
7530
7531 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
7532 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
7533 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
7534 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
7535 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
7536 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
7537 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
7538 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
7539 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
7540 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
7541 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
7542 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
7543 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
7544 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
7545 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
7546
7547 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
7548 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
7549 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
7550 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
7551
7552 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
7553 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
7554
7555 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
7556 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
7557 different
7558 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
7559 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
7560
7561       </div>
7562       <div class="tags">
7563
7564
7565         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7566
7567
7568       </div>
7569     </div>
7570     <div class="padding"></div>
7571
7572     <div class="entry">
7573       <div class="title">
7574         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
7575       </div>
7576       <div class="date">
7577          3rd July 2015
7578       </div>
7579       <div class="body">
7580         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
7581 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
7582 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
7583 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
7584 flickering.</p>
7585
7586 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
7587 still as
7588 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
7589 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
7590 good help from
7591 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
7592 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
7593 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
7594 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
7595 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
7596 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
7597 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
7598 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
7599 deteriorated since X41.</p>
7600
7601 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
7602 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
7603 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
7604 have suggestions.</p>
7605
7606 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
7607 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
7608 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
7609
7610       </div>
7611       <div class="tags">
7612
7613
7614         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7615
7616
7617       </div>
7618     </div>
7619     <div class="padding"></div>
7620
7621     <div class="entry">
7622       <div class="title">
7623         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
7624       </div>
7625       <div class="date">
7626         22nd November 2014
7627       </div>
7628       <div class="body">
7629         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
7630 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
7631 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
7632 courtesy of
7633 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
7634 Schubert</a> and
7635 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
7636 McVittie</a>.
7637
7638 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
7639 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
7640 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
7641 you upgrade:</p>
7642
7643 <p><blockquote><pre>
7644 Package: systemd-sysv
7645 Pin: release o=Debian
7646 Pin-Priority: -1
7647 </pre></blockquote><p>
7648
7649 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
7650 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
7651 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
7652 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
7653 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
7654
7655 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
7656 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
7657 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
7658 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
7659 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
7660 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
7661
7662 <p><blockquote><pre>
7663 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
7664 </pre></blockquote><p>
7665
7666 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
7667
7668 <p><blockquote><pre>
7669 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
7670 </pre></blockquote><p>
7671
7672 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
7673 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
7674
7675 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
7676 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
7677 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
7678 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
7679 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
7680 Jessie is released.</p>
7681
7682 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
7683 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
7684 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
7685 line.</p>
7686
7687       </div>
7688       <div class="tags">
7689
7690
7691         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7692
7693
7694       </div>
7695     </div>
7696     <div class="padding"></div>
7697
7698     <div class="entry">
7699       <div class="title">
7700         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
7701       </div>
7702       <div class="date">
7703         10th November 2014
7704       </div>
7705       <div class="body">
7706         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
7707 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
7708 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
7709
7710 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
7711 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
7712 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
7713 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
7714 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
7715 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
7716 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
7717 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
7718 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
7719 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
7720 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
7721 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
7722 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
7723 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
7724 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
7725
7726 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
7727 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
7728 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
7729 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
7730 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
7731 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
7732 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
7733 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
7734 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
7735 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
7736 were fairly easy, and
7737 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
7738 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
7739 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
7740 useful approach.</p>
7741
7742 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
7743 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
7744 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
7745 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
7746 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
7747 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
7748 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
7749 this:</p>
7750
7751 <p><blockquote><pre>
7752 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
7753   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
7754 </pre></blockquote></p>
7755
7756 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
7757 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
7758
7759 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
7760 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
7761 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
7762 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
7763 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
7764 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
7765 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
7766 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
7767 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
7768 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
7769 system.</p>
7770
7771 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
7772 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
7773 SMTorP. :)</p>
7774
7775       </div>
7776       <div class="tags">
7777
7778
7779         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
7780
7781
7782       </div>
7783     </div>
7784     <div class="padding"></div>
7785
7786     <div class="entry">
7787       <div class="title">
7788         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
7789       </div>
7790       <div class="date">
7791         22nd October 2014
7792       </div>
7793       <div class="body">
7794         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
7795 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
7796 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
7797 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
7798 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
7799 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
7800 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
7801 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
7802 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
7803 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
7804 lists I recently took over:</p>
7805
7806 <p><blockquote><pre>
7807 % time listadmin xiph
7808 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
7809 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
7810
7811 real    0m1.709s
7812 user    0m0.232s
7813 sys     0m0.012s
7814 %
7815 </pre></blockquote></p>
7816
7817 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
7818 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
7819 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
7820 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
7821 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
7822 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
7823 program.</p>
7824
7825 <p>If you install
7826 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
7827 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
7828 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
7829
7830 <p><blockquote><pre>
7831 username username@example.org
7832 spamlevel 23
7833 default discard
7834 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
7835
7836 password secret
7837 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
7838 mailman-list@lists.example.com
7839
7840 password hidden
7841 other-list@otherserver.example.org
7842 </pre></blockquote></p>
7843
7844 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
7845 learn the details.</p>
7846
7847 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
7848 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
7849 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
7850 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
7851
7852 <p><blockquote><pre>
7853 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
7854 </pre></blockquote></p>
7855
7856 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
7857 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
7858 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
7859 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
7860 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
7861 email.</p>
7862
7863 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
7864 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
7865 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
7866 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
7867 software.</p>
7868
7869 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7870 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7871 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7872
7873 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
7874 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
7875 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
7876 sure why.</p>
7877
7878       </div>
7879       <div class="tags">
7880
7881
7882         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
7883
7884
7885       </div>
7886     </div>
7887     <div class="padding"></div>
7888
7889     <div class="entry">
7890       <div class="title">
7891         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
7892       </div>
7893       <div class="date">
7894         17th October 2014
7895       </div>
7896       <div class="body">
7897         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
7898 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
7899 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
7900 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
7901 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
7902 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
7903 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
7904
7905 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
7906 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
7907 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
7908 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
7909 of this story.)</p>
7910
7911 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
7912 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
7913 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
7914 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
7915 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
7916 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
7917 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
7918 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
7919 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
7920 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
7921
7922 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
7923 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
7924 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
7925 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
7926
7927 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
7928 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
7929
7930 <p><blockquote><pre>
7931 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
7932 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
7933 </pre></blockquote></p>
7934
7935 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
7936 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
7937 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
7938 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
7939 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
7940 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
7941 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
7942 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
7943
7944 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
7945 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
7946
7947 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
7948 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
7949 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
7950 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
7951 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
7952
7953 <p><blockquote><pre>
7954 Task: isenkram-packages
7955 Section: hardware
7956 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
7957  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
7958  proposed.
7959 Test-new-install: show show
7960 Relevance: 8
7961 Packages: for-current-hardware
7962
7963 Task: isenkram-firmware
7964 Section: hardware
7965 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
7966  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
7967  packages are proposed.
7968 Test-new-install: mark show
7969 Relevance: 8
7970 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
7971 </pre></blockquote></p>
7972
7973 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
7974 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
7975 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
7976 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
7977 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
7978
7979 <p><blockquote><pre>
7980 #!/bin/sh
7981 #
7982 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
7983 export PATH
7984 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
7985 </pre></blockquote></p>
7986
7987 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
7988 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
7989
7990 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
7991 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
7992 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
7993 install.</p>
7994
7995 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
7996 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
7997 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
7998
7999       </div>
8000       <div class="tags">
8001
8002
8003         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
8004
8005
8006       </div>
8007     </div>
8008     <div class="padding"></div>
8009
8010     <div class="entry">
8011       <div class="title">
8012         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
8013       </div>
8014       <div class="date">
8015          4th October 2014
8016       </div>
8017       <div class="body">
8018         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
8019 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
8020 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
8021 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
8022
8023 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
8024
8025 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
8026 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
8027 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
8028
8029       </div>
8030       <div class="tags">
8031
8032
8033         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8034
8035
8036       </div>
8037     </div>
8038     <div class="padding"></div>
8039
8040     <div class="entry">
8041       <div class="title">
8042         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
8043       </div>
8044       <div class="date">
8045          4th October 2014
8046       </div>
8047       <div class="body">
8048         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
8049 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
8050 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
8051 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
8052 Dibb.</p>
8053
8054 <p>I just wrapped up
8055 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
8056 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
8057 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
8058 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
8059 0.17.</p>
8060
8061 <ul>
8062
8063  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
8064  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
8065    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
8066  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
8067  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
8068  <li>Fix include orders</li>
8069  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
8070  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
8071  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
8072    the palette size is the same.</li>
8073  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
8074  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
8075  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
8076  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
8077    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
8078
8079 </ul>
8080
8081 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
8082 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
8083 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
8084
8085       </div>
8086       <div class="tags">
8087
8088
8089         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
8090
8091
8092       </div>
8093     </div>
8094     <div class="padding"></div>
8095
8096     <div class="entry">
8097       <div class="title">
8098         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
8099       </div>
8100       <div class="date">
8101         26th September 2014
8102       </div>
8103       <div class="body">
8104         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8105 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
8106 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
8107 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
8108 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
8109 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
8110 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
8111 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
8112 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
8113 future.  The
8114 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
8115 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
8116 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
8117 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
8118 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
8119
8120 <p>First, download the test ISO via
8121 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
8122 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
8123 or rsync (use
8124 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
8125 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
8126 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
8127 install with some tweaking.</p>
8128
8129 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
8130 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
8131
8132 <p><blockquote><pre>
8133 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
8134 </pre></blockquote></p>
8135
8136 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
8137 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
8138 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
8139 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
8140
8141 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
8142 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
8143 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
8144 your need.</p>
8145
8146 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
8147 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
8148 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
8149 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
8150 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
8151 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
8152 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
8153 days.</p>
8154
8155 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
8156 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
8157 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
8158 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
8159 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
8160 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
8161 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
8162 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
8163 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
8164
8165 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
8166 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
8167 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
8168
8169       </div>
8170       <div class="tags">
8171
8172
8173         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8174
8175
8176       </div>
8177     </div>
8178     <div class="padding"></div>
8179
8180     <div class="entry">
8181       <div class="title">
8182         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
8183       </div>
8184       <div class="date">
8185         25th September 2014
8186       </div>
8187       <div class="body">
8188         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
8189 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
8190 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
8191 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
8192 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
8193 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
8194 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
8195 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
8196 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
8197 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
8198 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
8199 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
8200 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
8201
8202 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
8203 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
8204 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
8205 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
8206 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
8207 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
8208 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
8209 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
8210 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
8211 list</a>. :)</p>
8212
8213       </div>
8214       <div class="tags">
8215
8216
8217         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
8218
8219
8220       </div>
8221     </div>
8222     <div class="padding"></div>
8223
8224     <div class="entry">
8225       <div class="title">
8226         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
8227       </div>
8228       <div class="date">
8229         16th September 2014
8230       </div>
8231       <div class="body">
8232         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
8233 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
8234 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
8235 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
8236 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
8237 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
8238 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
8239 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
8240 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
8241 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
8242 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
8243 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
8244 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
8245 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
8246
8247 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
8248 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
8249 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
8250 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
8251 depend on the small and clever package
8252 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
8253 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
8254 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
8255 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
8256 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
8257 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
8258 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
8259 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
8260 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
8261 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
8262 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
8263
8264 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
8265 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
8266 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
8267 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
8268 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
8269 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
8270 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
8271 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
8272 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
8273 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
8274 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
8275 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
8276 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
8277 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
8278 dialog.</p>
8279
8280 <p><table>
8281
8282 <tr>
8283 <th>Machine/setup</th>
8284 <th>Original tasksel</th>
8285 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
8286 <th>Reduction</th>
8287 </tr>
8288
8289 <tr>
8290 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
8291 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
8292 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
8293 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
8294 </tr>
8295
8296 <tr>
8297 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
8298 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
8299 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
8300 <td>23 min 40%</td>
8301 </tr>
8302
8303 <tr>
8304 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
8305 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
8306 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
8307 <td>11 min 50%</td>
8308 </tr>
8309
8310 <tr>
8311 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
8312 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
8313 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
8314 <td>2 min 33%</td>
8315 </tr>
8316
8317 <tr>
8318 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
8319 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
8320 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
8321 <td>4 min 21%</td>
8322 </tr>
8323
8324 </table></p>
8325
8326 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
8327 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
8328 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
8329 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
8330 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
8331 installed.</p>
8332
8333 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
8334 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
8335 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
8336 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
8337 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
8338 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
8339 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
8340 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
8341 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
8342 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
8343 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
8344 for the entire installation.</p>
8345
8346 <p>I've implemented this in the
8347 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
8348 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
8349 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
8350 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
8351 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
8352
8353 <p><blockquote><pre>
8354 #!/bin/sh
8355 set -e
8356 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
8357 info() {
8358     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
8359 }
8360 error() {
8361     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
8362 }
8363 override_install() {
8364     apt-install eatmydata || true
8365     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
8366         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
8367             file=/usr/bin/$bin
8368             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
8369             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
8370                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
8371                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
8372                     > /target$file.edu
8373                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
8374                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
8375                     --rename --quiet --add $file
8376                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
8377             else
8378                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
8379             fi
8380         done
8381     else
8382         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
8383     fi
8384 }
8385
8386 override_install
8387 </pre></blockquote></p>
8388
8389 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
8390 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
8391
8392 <p><blockquote><pre>
8393 #! /bin/sh -e
8394 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
8395 error() {
8396     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
8397 }
8398 remove_install_override() {
8399     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
8400         file=/usr/bin/$bin
8401         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
8402             rm /target$file
8403             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
8404                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
8405             rm /target$file.edu
8406         else
8407             error "Missing divert for $file."
8408         fi
8409     done
8410     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
8411 }
8412
8413 remove_install_override
8414 </pre></blockquote></p>
8415
8416 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
8417 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
8418 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
8419
8420 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
8421 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
8422 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
8423 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
8424 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
8425 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
8426 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
8427 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
8428 everyone.</p>
8429
8430 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
8431 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
8432 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
8433 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
8434
8435 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
8436 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
8437 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
8438 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
8439 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
8440
8441 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
8442 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
8443 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
8444 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
8445 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
8446
8447       </div>
8448       <div class="tags">
8449
8450
8451         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8452
8453
8454       </div>
8455     </div>
8456     <div class="padding"></div>
8457
8458     <div class="entry">
8459       <div class="title">
8460         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
8461       </div>
8462       <div class="date">
8463         10th September 2014
8464       </div>
8465       <div class="body">
8466         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
8467 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
8468 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
8469 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
8470 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
8471 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
8472 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
8473 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
8474 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
8475 those problems are gone now.</p>
8476
8477 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
8478 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
8479 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
8480 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
8481 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
8482
8483 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
8484 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
8485 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
8486
8487 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
8488 line:</p>
8489
8490 <p><blockquote><pre>
8491 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
8492 </pre></blockquote></p>
8493
8494 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
8495 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
8496 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
8497 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
8498
8499 <p><blockquote><pre>
8500 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
8501 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
8502 %
8503 </pre></blockquote></p>
8504
8505 <p>Now if only
8506 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
8507 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
8508 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
8509 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
8510 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
8511 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
8512 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
8513 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
8514 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
8515
8516       </div>
8517       <div class="tags">
8518
8519
8520         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8521
8522
8523       </div>
8524     </div>
8525     <div class="padding"></div>
8526
8527     <div class="entry">
8528       <div class="title">
8529         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
8530       </div>
8531       <div class="date">
8532         17th June 2014
8533       </div>
8534       <div class="body">
8535         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8536 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
8537 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
8538 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
8539 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
8540
8541 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
8542 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
8543 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
8544 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
8545 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
8546 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
8547 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
8548 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
8549 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
8550 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
8551 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
8552 goals.</p>
8553
8554 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
8555 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
8556 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
8557 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
8558 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
8559 chapters together into one large web page (aka
8560 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
8561 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
8562 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
8563 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
8564 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
8565 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
8566 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
8567 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
8568 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
8569 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
8570 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
8571 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
8572 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
8573 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
8574 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
8575 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
8576 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
8577 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
8578
8579 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
8580 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
8581 track the English original.  For this we use the
8582 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
8583 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
8584 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
8585 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
8586 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
8587 files), which the translations update with the native language
8588 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
8589 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
8590 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
8591 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
8592 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
8593 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
8594 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
8595 of the documentation.</p>
8596
8597 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
8598 recommend using
8599 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
8600 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
8601 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
8602 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
8603 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
8604 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
8605 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
8606 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
8607
8608 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
8609 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
8610 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
8611 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
8612 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
8613 translated images by storing translated versions in
8614 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
8615 package maintainers know more.</p>
8616
8617 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
8618 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
8619 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
8620 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
8621 PDF version</a> or the
8622 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
8623 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
8624 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
8625
8626 <p>To learn more, check out
8627 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
8628 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
8629 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
8630 manual on the wiki</a> and
8631 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
8632 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
8633
8634       </div>
8635       <div class="tags">
8636
8637
8638         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8639
8640
8641       </div>
8642     </div>
8643     <div class="padding"></div>
8644
8645     <div class="entry">
8646       <div class="title">
8647         <a href="https://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>
8648       </div>
8649       <div class="date">
8650         23rd April 2014
8651       </div>
8652       <div class="body">
8653         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
8654 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
8655 So I implemented one, using
8656 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
8657 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
8658 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
8659 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
8660 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
8661 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
8662
8663 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
8664 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
8665 packages to install.  The first part is in
8666 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
8667 this:</p>
8668
8669 <p><blockquote><pre>
8670 Task: isenkram
8671 Section: hardware
8672 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
8673  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
8674  proposed.
8675 Test-new-install: mark show
8676 Relevance: 8
8677 Packages: for-current-hardware
8678 </pre></blockquote></p>
8679
8680 <p>The second part is in
8681 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
8682 this:</p>
8683
8684 <p><blockquote><pre>
8685 #!/bin/sh
8686 #
8687 (
8688     isenkram-lookup
8689     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
8690 ) | sort -u
8691 </pre></blockquote></p>
8692
8693 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
8694 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
8695 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
8696 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
8697 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
8698 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
8699
8700 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
8701 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
8702 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
8703 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
8704 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
8705 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
8706 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
8707 the python-apt code (bug
8708 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
8709 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
8710 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
8711 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
8712 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
8713 unstable today.</p>
8714
8715 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
8716 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
8717 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
8718 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
8719 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
8720 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
8721 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
8722 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
8723 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
8724
8725 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
8726 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
8727 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
8728 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
8729 package.  See also
8730 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
8731 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
8732 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
8733 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
8734
8735       </div>
8736       <div class="tags">
8737
8738
8739         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
8740
8741
8742       </div>
8743     </div>
8744     <div class="padding"></div>
8745
8746     <div class="entry">
8747       <div class="title">
8748         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
8749       </div>
8750       <div class="date">
8751         15th April 2014
8752       </div>
8753       <div class="body">
8754         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
8755 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
8756 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
8757 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
8758 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
8759 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
8760
8761 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
8762 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
8763 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
8764 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
8765 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
8766 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
8767 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
8768
8769 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
8770 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
8771 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
8772 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
8773 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
8774 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
8775 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
8776 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
8777 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
8778 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
8779 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
8780 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
8781
8782 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
8783 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
8784 become root:</p>
8785
8786 <p><pre>
8787 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
8788   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
8789   u-boot-tools
8790 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
8791   freedom-maker
8792 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
8793 </pre></p>
8794
8795 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
8796 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
8797 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
8798 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
8799 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
8800 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
8801 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
8802 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
8803
8804 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
8805 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
8806 the preseed values:</p>
8807
8808 <p><pre>
8809 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
8810 </pre></p>
8811
8812 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
8813 it still work.</p>
8814
8815 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
8816 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
8817 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
8818 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
8819 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
8820 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
8821 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
8822
8823 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
8824 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
8825 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
8826 irc.debian.org)</a> and
8827 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
8828 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
8829
8830       </div>
8831       <div class="tags">
8832
8833
8834         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8835
8836
8837       </div>
8838     </div>
8839     <div class="padding"></div>
8840
8841     <div class="entry">
8842       <div class="title">
8843         <a href="https://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>
8844       </div>
8845       <div class="date">
8846          9th April 2014
8847       </div>
8848       <div class="body">
8849         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
8850 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
8851 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
8852 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
8853 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
8854 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
8855 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
8856 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
8857 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
8858 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
8859 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
8860 have looked at a system called
8861 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
8862 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
8863
8864 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
8865 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
8866 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
8867 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
8868 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
8869 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
8870 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
8871 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
8872 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
8873 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
8874 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
8875 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
8876 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
8877
8878 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
8879 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
8880 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
8881 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
8882 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
8883 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
8884 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
8885 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
8886 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
8887 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
8888 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
8889 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
8890 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
8891 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
8892 account.</p>
8893
8894 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
8895 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
8896 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
8897 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
8898 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
8899 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
8900 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
8901
8902 <p><blockquote><pre>
8903 [s3c]
8904 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
8905 backend-login: API-login
8906 backend-password: API-password
8907 fs-passphrase: local-password
8908 </pre></blockquote></p>
8909
8910 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
8911 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
8912 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
8913 details and password to create it:</p>
8914
8915 <p><blockquote><pre>
8916 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
8917 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
8918   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
8919 Enter backend login:
8920 Enter backend password:
8921 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
8922 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
8923 Enter encryption password:
8924 Confirm encryption password:
8925 Generating random encryption key...
8926 Creating metadata tables...
8927 Dumping metadata...
8928 ..objects..
8929 ..blocks..
8930 ..inodes..
8931 ..inode_blocks..
8932 ..symlink_targets..
8933 ..names..
8934 ..contents..
8935 ..ext_attributes..
8936 Compressing and uploading metadata...
8937 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
8938 # </pre></blockquote></p>
8939
8940 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
8941
8942 <p><blockquote><pre>
8943 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
8944   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
8945 Using 4 upload threads.
8946 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
8947 Reading metadata...
8948 ..objects..
8949 ..blocks..
8950 ..inodes..
8951 ..inode_blocks..
8952 ..symlink_targets..
8953 ..names..
8954 ..contents..
8955 ..ext_attributes..
8956 Mounting filesystem...
8957 # df -h /s3ql
8958 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
8959 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
8960 #
8961 </pre></blockquote></p>
8962
8963 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
8964 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
8965 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
8966 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
8967 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
8968 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
8969
8970 <p><blockquote><pre>
8971 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
8972 #
8973 </pre></blockquote></p>
8974
8975 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
8976 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
8977 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
8978 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
8979 file system:</p>
8980
8981 <p><blockquote><pre>
8982 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
8983 Using cached metadata.
8984 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
8985 Checking DB integrity...
8986 Creating temporary extra indices...
8987 Checking lost+found...
8988 Checking cached objects...
8989 Checking names (refcounts)...
8990 Checking contents (names)...
8991 Checking contents (inodes)...
8992 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
8993 Checking objects (reference counts)...
8994 Checking objects (backend)...
8995 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
8996 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
8997 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
8998 Checking objects (sizes)...
8999 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
9000 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
9001 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
9002 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
9003 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
9004 Checking inodes (sizes)...
9005 Checking extended attributes (names)...
9006 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
9007 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
9008 Checking directory reachability...
9009 Checking unix conventions...
9010 Checking referential integrity...
9011 Dropping temporary indices...
9012 Backing up old metadata...
9013 Dumping metadata...
9014 ..objects..
9015 ..blocks..
9016 ..inodes..
9017 ..inode_blocks..
9018 ..symlink_targets..
9019 ..names..
9020 ..contents..
9021 ..ext_attributes..
9022 Compressing and uploading metadata...
9023 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
9024 #
9025 </pre></blockquote></p>
9026
9027 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
9028 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
9029 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
9030 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
9031 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
9032 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
9033 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
9034 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
9035 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
9036 working set.</p>
9037
9038 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
9039 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
9040 busy:</p>
9041
9042 <p><blockquote><pre>
9043 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
9044   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
9045 Using 8 upload threads.
9046 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
9047 #
9048 </pre></blockquote></p>
9049
9050 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
9051 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
9052 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
9053 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
9054 s3qlctrl:
9055
9056 <p><blockquote><pre>
9057 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
9058 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
9059 #
9060 </pre></blockquote></p>
9061
9062 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
9063 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
9064 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
9065 a report:</p>
9066
9067 <p><blockquote><pre>
9068 # s3qlstat /s3ql
9069 Directory entries:    9141
9070 Inodes:               9143
9071 Data blocks:          8851
9072 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
9073 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
9074 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
9075 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
9076 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
9077 #
9078 </pre></blockquote></p>
9079
9080 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
9081 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
9082 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
9083 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
9084 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
9085 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
9086 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
9087 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
9088 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
9089 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
9090 best.</p>
9091
9092 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
9093 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
9094 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
9095 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
9096 poster is titled
9097 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
9098 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
9099 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
9100 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
9101 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
9102
9103 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
9104 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
9105 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
9106 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
9107 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
9108 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
9109 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
9110 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
9111
9112 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
9113 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
9114 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
9115 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
9116 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
9117 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
9118 only read from it.</p>
9119
9120 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
9121 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
9122 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
9123
9124       </div>
9125       <div class="tags">
9126
9127
9128         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
9129
9130
9131       </div>
9132     </div>
9133     <div class="padding"></div>
9134
9135     <div class="entry">
9136       <div class="title">
9137         <a href="https://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>
9138       </div>
9139       <div class="date">
9140         14th March 2014
9141       </div>
9142       <div class="body">
9143         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
9144 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
9145 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
9146 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
9147 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
9148 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
9149 release (0.2).</p>
9150
9151 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
9152 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
9153 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
9154 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
9155 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
9156 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
9157 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
9158 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
9159 and build using
9160 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
9161 with a user with sudo access to become root:
9162
9163 <pre>
9164 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
9165   freedom-maker
9166 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
9167   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
9168   u-boot-tools
9169 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
9170 </pre>
9171
9172 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
9173 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
9174 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
9175 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
9176 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
9177 kpartx call.</p>
9178
9179 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
9180 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
9181 the preseed values:</p>
9182
9183 <pre>
9184 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
9185 </pre>
9186
9187 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
9188 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
9189 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
9190 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
9191 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
9192 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
9193
9194 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
9195 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
9196 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
9197 irc.debian.org)</a> and
9198 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
9199 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
9200
9201       </div>
9202       <div class="tags">
9203
9204
9205         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9206
9207
9208       </div>
9209     </div>
9210     <div class="padding"></div>
9211
9212     <div class="entry">
9213       <div class="title">
9214         <a href="https://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>
9215       </div>
9216       <div class="date">
9217         22nd February 2014
9218       </div>
9219       <div class="body">
9220         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
9221 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
9222 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
9223 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
9224 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
9225 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
9226 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
9227 proper home since then.</p>
9228
9229 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
9230 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
9231 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
9232 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
9233 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
9234
9235 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
9236 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
9237 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
9238 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
9239 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
9240 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
9241 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
9242 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
9243 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
9244
9245       </div>
9246       <div class="tags">
9247
9248
9249         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9250
9251
9252       </div>
9253     </div>
9254     <div class="padding"></div>
9255
9256     <div class="entry">
9257       <div class="title">
9258         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
9259       </div>
9260       <div class="date">
9261          3rd February 2014
9262       </div>
9263       <div class="body">
9264         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
9265 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
9266 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
9267 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
9268 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
9269 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
9270 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
9271 <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>,
9272 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
9273
9274 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
9275 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
9276 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
9277 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
9278 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
9279 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
9280
9281 <p><blockquote><pre>
9282 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
9283 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
9284 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
9285 dhclient /dev/eth0
9286 </pre></blockquote></p>
9287
9288 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
9289 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
9290 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
9291
9292 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
9293 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
9294 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
9295 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
9296 side.</p>
9297
9298 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
9299 stuff:</p>
9300
9301 <p><blockquote><pre>
9302 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
9303 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
9304 EOF
9305 apt-get update
9306 apt-get dist-upgrade
9307 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
9308     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
9309 update-alternatives --config runsystem
9310 </pre></blockquote></p>
9311
9312 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
9313 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
9314 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
9315 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
9316 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
9317 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
9318 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
9319 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
9320 ssh instead.
9321
9322 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
9323 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
9324 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
9325 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
9326 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
9327 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
9328
9329 <p><blockquote><pre>
9330 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
9331 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
9332 EOF
9333 </pre></blockquote></p>
9334
9335 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
9336 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
9337 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
9338 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
9339
9340 <p><blockquote><pre>
9341 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
9342 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
9343 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
9344 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
9345 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
9346 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
9347 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
9348 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
9349 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
9350 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
9351 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
9352 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
9353 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
9354 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
9355 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
9356 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
9357 #
9358 </pre></blockquote></p>
9359
9360 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
9361 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
9362 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
9363 command line stuff.<p>
9364
9365       </div>
9366       <div class="tags">
9367
9368
9369         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9370
9371
9372       </div>
9373     </div>
9374     <div class="padding"></div>
9375
9376     <div class="entry">
9377       <div class="title">
9378         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
9379       </div>
9380       <div class="date">
9381         14th January 2014
9382       </div>
9383       <div class="body">
9384         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
9385 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
9386 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
9387 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
9388 the source.  The company behind it provide
9389 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
9390 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
9391 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
9392 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
9393 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
9394 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
9395 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
9396 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
9397 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
9398 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
9399 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
9400 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
9401 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
9402 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
9403 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
9404 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
9405 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
9406 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
9407 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
9408
9409 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
9410
9411 <ul>
9412
9413   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
9414   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
9415   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
9416
9417 </ul>
9418
9419 <p>You can
9420 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
9421 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
9422 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
9423 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
9424 include a test suite check.</p>
9425
9426       </div>
9427       <div class="tags">
9428
9429
9430         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9431
9432
9433       </div>
9434     </div>
9435     <div class="padding"></div>
9436
9437     <div class="entry">
9438       <div class="title">
9439         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
9440       </div>
9441       <div class="date">
9442         24th November 2013
9443       </div>
9444       <div class="body">
9445         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
9446 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
9447 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
9448 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
9449 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
9450 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
9451 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
9452 is working on.  I checked the
9453 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
9454 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
9455 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
9456 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
9457 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
9458 These are the release notes:</p>
9459
9460 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
9461
9462 <ul>
9463
9464   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
9465    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
9466    up.</li>
9467
9468   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
9469
9470   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
9471    Matthias Klose.</li>
9472
9473   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
9474    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
9475
9476   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
9477    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
9478    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
9479
9480 </ul>
9481
9482 <p>You can
9483 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
9484 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
9485 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
9486 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
9487 include a testsuite check.</p>
9488
9489       </div>
9490       <div class="tags">
9491
9492
9493         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9494
9495
9496       </div>
9497     </div>
9498     <div class="padding"></div>
9499
9500     <div class="entry">
9501       <div class="title">
9502         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
9503       </div>
9504       <div class="date">
9505          2nd November 2013
9506       </div>
9507       <div class="body">
9508         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
9509 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
9510 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
9511 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
9512 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
9513
9514 <p><pre>
9515 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
9516 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
9517 # Provides:          rsyslog
9518 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
9519 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
9520 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
9521 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
9522 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
9523 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
9524 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
9525 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
9526 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
9527 ### END INIT INFO
9528 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
9529 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
9530 </pre></p>
9531
9532 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
9533 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
9534 info/comments.</p>
9535
9536 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
9537 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
9538
9539 <p><pre>
9540 #!/bin/sh
9541
9542 # Define LSB log_* functions.
9543 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
9544 # and status_of_proc is working.
9545 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
9546
9547 #
9548 # Function that starts the daemon/service
9549
9550 #
9551 do_start()
9552 {
9553         # Return
9554         #   0 if daemon has been started
9555         #   1 if daemon was already running
9556         #   2 if daemon could not be started
9557         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
9558                 || return 1
9559         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
9560                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
9561                 || return 2
9562         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
9563         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
9564         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
9565 }
9566
9567 #
9568 # Function that stops the daemon/service
9569 #
9570 do_stop()
9571 {
9572         # Return
9573         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
9574         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
9575         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
9576         #   other if a failure occurred
9577         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
9578         RETVAL="$?"
9579         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
9580         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
9581         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
9582         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
9583         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
9584         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
9585         # sleep for some time.
9586         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
9587         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
9588         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
9589         rm -f $PIDFILE
9590         return "$RETVAL"
9591 }
9592
9593 #
9594 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
9595 #
9596 do_reload() {
9597         #
9598         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
9599         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
9600         # then implement that here.
9601         #
9602         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
9603         return 0
9604 }
9605
9606 SCRIPTNAME=$1
9607 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
9608 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
9609 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
9610     script="$1"
9611     shift
9612     . $script
9613 else
9614     exit 0
9615 fi
9616
9617 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
9618 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
9619
9620 # Exit if the package is not installed
9621 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
9622
9623 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
9624 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
9625
9626 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
9627 . /lib/init/vars.sh
9628
9629 case "$1" in
9630   start)
9631         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
9632         do_start
9633         case "$?" in
9634                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
9635                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
9636         esac
9637         ;;
9638   stop)
9639         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
9640         do_stop
9641         case "$?" in
9642                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
9643                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
9644         esac
9645         ;;
9646   status)
9647         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
9648         ;;
9649   #reload|force-reload)
9650         #
9651         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
9652         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
9653         #
9654         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
9655         #do_reload
9656         #log_end_msg $?
9657         #;;
9658   restart|force-reload)
9659         #
9660         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
9661         # 'force-reload' alias
9662         #
9663         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
9664         do_stop
9665         case "$?" in
9666           0|1)
9667                 do_start
9668                 case "$?" in
9669                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
9670                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
9671                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
9672                 esac
9673                 ;;
9674           *)
9675                 # Failed to stop
9676                 log_end_msg 1
9677                 ;;
9678         esac
9679         ;;
9680   *)
9681         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
9682         exit 3
9683         ;;
9684 esac
9685
9686 :
9687 </pre></p>
9688
9689 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
9690 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
9691 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
9692 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
9693
9694 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
9695 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
9696 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
9697 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
9698 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
9699
9700       </div>
9701       <div class="tags">
9702
9703
9704         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9705
9706
9707       </div>
9708     </div>
9709     <div class="padding"></div>
9710
9711     <div class="entry">
9712       <div class="title">
9713         <a href="https://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>
9714       </div>
9715       <div class="date">
9716          1st November 2013
9717       </div>
9718       <div class="body">
9719         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
9720 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
9721 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
9722 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
9723 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
9724 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
9725 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
9726 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
9727 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
9728 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
9729 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
9730 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
9731
9732 <p>The source is now available from
9733 <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>
9734
9735       </div>
9736       <div class="tags">
9737
9738
9739         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9740
9741
9742       </div>
9743     </div>
9744     <div class="padding"></div>
9745
9746     <div class="entry">
9747       <div class="title">
9748         <a href="https://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>
9749       </div>
9750       <div class="date">
9751         27th October 2013
9752       </div>
9753       <div class="body">
9754         <p>The
9755 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
9756 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
9757 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
9758 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
9759 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
9760 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
9761 of a plan to simplify the build system for
9762 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
9763 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
9764 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
9765 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
9766 Raspberry Pi.</p>
9767
9768 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
9769 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
9770 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
9771 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
9772 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
9773 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
9774 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
9775 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
9776 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
9777 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
9778 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
9779 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
9780 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
9781 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
9782 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
9783 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
9784 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
9785 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
9786 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
9787 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
9788 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
9789 available from
9790 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
9791 upstream project page</a>.</p>
9792
9793 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
9794 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
9795 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
9796 list:</p>
9797
9798 <p><pre>
9799 #!/bin/sh
9800 set -e # Exit on first error
9801 rootdir="$1"
9802 cd "$rootdir"
9803 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
9804 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
9805 EOF
9806 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
9807 # install a kernel somewhere too.
9808 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
9809     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
9810 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
9811 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
9812 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
9813 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
9814 </pre></p>
9815
9816 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
9817 to build the image:</p>
9818
9819 <pre>
9820 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
9821     --variant minbase \
9822     --arch armel \
9823     --distribution jessie \
9824     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
9825     --image test.img \
9826     --size 600M \
9827     --bootsize 64M \
9828     --boottype vfat \
9829     --log-level debug \
9830     --verbose \
9831     --no-kernel \
9832     --no-extlinux \
9833     --root-password raspberry \
9834     --hostname raspberrypi \
9835     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
9836     --customize `pwd`/customize \
9837     --package netbase \
9838     --package git-core \
9839     --package binutils \
9840     --package ca-certificates \
9841     --package wget \
9842     --package kmod
9843 </pre></p>
9844
9845 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
9846 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
9847 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
9848 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
9849 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
9850 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
9851 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
9852
9853 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
9854 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
9855 build dependency list.</p>
9856
9857 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
9858 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
9859 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
9860 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
9861
9862       </div>
9863       <div class="tags">
9864
9865
9866         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
9867
9868
9869       </div>
9870     </div>
9871     <div class="padding"></div>
9872
9873     <div class="entry">
9874       <div class="title">
9875         <a href="https://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>
9876       </div>
9877       <div class="date">
9878         15th October 2013
9879       </div>
9880       <div class="body">
9881         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
9882 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
9883 these. :)</p>
9884
9885 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
9886 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
9887 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
9888 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
9889 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
9890 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
9891 hope you will to. :)</p>
9892
9893 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
9894 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
9895 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
9896 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
9897 donated.  Are you next?</p>
9898
9899 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
9900 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
9901 statement under the heading
9902 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
9903 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
9904 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
9905 too.</p>
9906
9907       </div>
9908       <div class="tags">
9909
9910
9911         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
9912
9913
9914       </div>
9915     </div>
9916     <div class="padding"></div>
9917
9918     <div class="entry">
9919       <div class="title">
9920         <a href="https://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>
9921       </div>
9922       <div class="date">
9923         27th September 2013
9924       </div>
9925       <div class="body">
9926         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
9927 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
9928 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
9929 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
9930
9931 <ul>
9932
9933 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
9934 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
9935
9936 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
9937 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
9938
9939 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
9940 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
9941 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
9942 (Youtube)</li>
9943
9944 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
9945 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
9946
9947 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
9948 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
9949
9950 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
9951 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
9952 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
9953
9954 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
9955 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
9956 (Youtube)</li>
9957
9958 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
9959 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
9960
9961 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
9962 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
9963
9964 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
9965 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
9966 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
9967
9968 </ul>
9969
9970 <p>A larger list is available from
9971 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
9972 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
9973
9974 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
9975 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
9976 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
9977 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
9978 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
9979 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
9980 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
9981 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
9982 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
9983 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
9984 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
9985
9986       </div>
9987       <div class="tags">
9988
9989
9990         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9991
9992
9993       </div>
9994     </div>
9995     <div class="padding"></div>
9996
9997     <div class="entry">
9998       <div class="title">
9999         <a href="https://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>
10000       </div>
10001       <div class="date">
10002         10th September 2013
10003       </div>
10004       <div class="body">
10005         <p>I was introduced to the
10006 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
10007 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
10008 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
10009 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
10010 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
10011 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
10012 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
10013 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
10014
10015 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
10016 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
10017 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
10018 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
10019 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
10020
10021 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
10022 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
10023 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
10024 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
10025 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
10026 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
10027 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
10028 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
10029 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
10030 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
10031 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
10032 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
10033 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
10034 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
10035 missing in Debian).</p>
10036
10037 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
10038 scripts
10039 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
10040 and a administrative web interface
10041 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
10042 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
10043 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
10044 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
10045 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
10046 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
10047 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
10048 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
10049 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
10050 this is really working yet, see
10051 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
10052 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
10053 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
10054 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
10055 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
10056 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
10057 with lots of half baked features.</p>
10058
10059 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
10060 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
10061 at.</p>
10062
10063 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
10064
10065 <ol>
10066
10067 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
10068 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
10069 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
10070 to the Debian installer:<p>
10071 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
10072
10073 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
10074 install on.</li>
10075
10076 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
10077 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
10078
10079 </ol>
10080
10081 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
10082
10083 <ol>
10084
10085 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
10086 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
10087 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
10088 <pre>
10089 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
10090 </pre></li>
10091 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
10092 <pre>
10093 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
10094    apt-key add -
10095 apt-get update
10096 apt-get install freedombox-setup
10097 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
10098 </pre></li>
10099 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
10100
10101 </ol>
10102
10103 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
10104 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
10105 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
10106 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
10107 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
10108
10109 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
10110 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
10111 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
10112 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
10113
10114 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
10115 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
10116 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
10117 irc.debian.org and the
10118 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
10119 mailing list</a>.</p>
10120
10121 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
10122 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
10123 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
10124 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
10125 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
10126 default password is 'secret'.</p>
10127
10128       </div>
10129       <div class="tags">
10130
10131
10132         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
10133
10134
10135       </div>
10136     </div>
10137     <div class="padding"></div>
10138
10139     <div class="entry">
10140       <div class="title">
10141         <a href="https://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>
10142       </div>
10143       <div class="date">
10144         18th August 2013
10145       </div>
10146       <div class="body">
10147         <p>Earlier, I reported about
10148 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
10149 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
10150 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
10151 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
10152 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
10153 currently on the disk.</p>
10154
10155 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
10156 <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>
10157 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
10158 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
10159 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
10160 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
10161 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
10162 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
10163 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
10164 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
10165 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
10166 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
10167 the broken disks.</p>
10168
10169       </div>
10170       <div class="tags">
10171
10172
10173         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10174
10175
10176       </div>
10177     </div>
10178     <div class="padding"></div>
10179
10180     <div class="entry">
10181       <div class="title">
10182         <a href="https://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>
10183       </div>
10184       <div class="date">
10185         17th July 2013
10186       </div>
10187       <div class="body">
10188         <p>Today I switched to
10189 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
10190 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
10191 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
10192 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
10193 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
10194 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
10195 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
10196 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
10197 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
10198 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
10199 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
10200 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
10201 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
10202 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
10203 station from now on.</p>
10204
10205 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
10206 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
10207 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
10208 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
10209 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
10210 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
10211 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
10212 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
10213 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
10214 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
10215 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
10216 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
10217
10218 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
10219 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
10220 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
10221 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
10222 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
10223 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
10224 parameters are tuned:</p>
10225
10226 <ul>
10227
10228 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
10229     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
10230
10231 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
10232     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
10233     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
10234
10235 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
10236     systems.</li>
10237
10238 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
10239     /etc/fstab.</li>
10240
10241 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
10242
10243 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
10244     cron.daily).</li>
10245
10246 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
10247     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
10248
10249 </ul>
10250
10251 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
10252 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
10253 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
10254 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
10255 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
10256 from getting the data on the disk (see
10257 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
10258 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
10259 right thing to do.</p>
10260
10261 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
10262 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
10263 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
10264
10265 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
10266 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
10267 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
10268 instead of during my work.</p>
10269
10270 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
10271 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
10272
10273 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
10274 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
10275 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
10276
10277 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
10278 there.</p>
10279
10280 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
10281 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
10282 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
10283 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
10284 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
10285 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
10286 back.</p>
10287
10288       </div>
10289       <div class="tags">
10290
10291
10292         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10293
10294
10295       </div>
10296     </div>
10297     <div class="padding"></div>
10298
10299     <div class="entry">
10300       <div class="title">
10301         <a href="https://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>
10302       </div>
10303       <div class="date">
10304         10th July 2013
10305       </div>
10306       <div class="body">
10307         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
10308 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
10309 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
10310 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
10311 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
10312 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
10313 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
10314 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
10315
10316 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
10317 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
10318 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
10319 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
10320 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
10321 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
10322 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
10323 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
10324 lock up when I download a new
10325 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
10326 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
10327 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
10328
10329 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
10330 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
10331 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
10332 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
10333 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
10334 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
10335
10336 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
10337 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
10338 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
10339 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
10340 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
10341 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
10342
10343 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
10344 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
10345 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
10346 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
10347 exist).</p>
10348
10349       </div>
10350       <div class="tags">
10351
10352
10353         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10354
10355
10356       </div>
10357     </div>
10358     <div class="padding"></div>
10359
10360     <div class="entry">
10361       <div class="title">
10362         <a href="https://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>
10363       </div>
10364       <div class="date">
10365          9th July 2013
10366       </div>
10367       <div class="body">
10368         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
10369 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
10370 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
10371 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
10372 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
10373 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
10374 Bitraf</a>.</p>
10375
10376 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
10377 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
10378 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
10379 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
10380 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
10381
10382       </div>
10383       <div class="tags">
10384
10385
10386         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10387
10388
10389       </div>
10390     </div>
10391     <div class="padding"></div>
10392
10393     <div class="entry">
10394       <div class="title">
10395         <a href="https://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>
10396       </div>
10397       <div class="date">
10398          5th July 2013
10399       </div>
10400       <div class="body">
10401         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
10402 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
10403 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
10404 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
10405 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
10406 ended up picking a
10407 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
10408 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
10409 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
10410 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
10411 on that below.</p>
10412
10413 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
10414 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
10415 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
10416 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
10417 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
10418 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
10419 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
10420 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
10421 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
10422
10423 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
10424 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
10425 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
10426 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
10427 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
10428 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
10429 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
10430
10431 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
10432 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
10433
10434 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
10435 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
10436 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
10437 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
10438 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
10439 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
10440 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
10441 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
10442 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
10443 kernel developers as
10444 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
10445 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
10446 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
10447 Lenovo forums, both for
10448 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
10449 2012-11-10</a> and for
10450 <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
10451 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
10452 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
10453 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
10454 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
10455 There is even a
10456 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
10457 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
10458 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
10459
10460 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
10461 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
10462 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
10463 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
10464 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
10465 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
10466 fixed. :)</p>
10467
10468       </div>
10469       <div class="tags">
10470
10471
10472         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10473
10474
10475       </div>
10476     </div>
10477     <div class="padding"></div>
10478
10479     <div class="entry">
10480       <div class="title">
10481         <a href="https://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>
10482       </div>
10483       <div class="date">
10484          4th July 2013
10485       </div>
10486       <div class="body">
10487         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
10488 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
10489 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
10490 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
10491 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
10492 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
10493 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
10494 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
10495 with an expencive door stop.</p>
10496
10497 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
10498 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
10499 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
10500 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
10501 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
10502 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
10503 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
10504
10505 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
10506 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
10507 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
10508 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
10509 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
10510 new laptop now. :)</p>
10511
10512 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
10513
10514       </div>
10515       <div class="tags">
10516
10517
10518         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10519
10520
10521       </div>
10522     </div>
10523     <div class="padding"></div>
10524
10525     <div class="entry">
10526       <div class="title">
10527         <a href="https://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>
10528       </div>
10529       <div class="date">
10530         25th June 2013
10531       </div>
10532       <div class="body">
10533         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
10534 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
10535 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
10536 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
10537 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
10538 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
10539 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
10540 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
10541 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
10542 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
10543 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
10544
10545 <p><pre>
10546 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
10547 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
10548 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
10549 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
10550 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
10551 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
10552 firmware-ipw2x00
10553 firmware-ipw2x00
10554 Preconfiguring packages ...
10555 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
10556 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
10557 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
10558 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
10559 #
10560 </pre></p>
10561
10562 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
10563 printed instead:</p>
10564
10565 <p><pre>
10566 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
10567 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
10568 #
10569 </pre></p>
10570
10571 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
10572 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
10573
10574 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
10575 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
10576 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
10577 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
10578 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
10579 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
10580 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
10581 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
10582 machine.</p>
10583
10584 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
10585 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
10586 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
10587 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
10588 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
10589 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
10590
10591       </div>
10592       <div class="tags">
10593
10594
10595         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
10596
10597
10598       </div>
10599     </div>
10600     <div class="padding"></div>
10601
10602     <div class="entry">
10603       <div class="title">
10604         <a href="https://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>
10605       </div>
10606       <div class="date">
10607         11th June 2013
10608       </div>
10609       <div class="body">
10610         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
10611 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
10612 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
10613 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
10614 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
10615 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
10616 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
10617 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
10618 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
10619 i915 driver used by the
10620 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
10621 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
10622
10623 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
10624 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
10625 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
10626 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
10627 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
10628
10629 <pre>
10630 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
10631 update-initramfs -u -k all
10632 </pre>
10633
10634 <p>Since March 2012 there is
10635 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
10636 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
10637 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
10638 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
10639 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
10640 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
10641 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
10642 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
10643 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
10644 number.</p>
10645
10646 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
10647 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
10648
10649 <p><pre>
10650 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
10651     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
10652     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
10653  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
10654  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
10655     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
10656  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
10657     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
10658  Latency: 0
10659  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
10660  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
10661  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
10662  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
10663  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
10664  Capabilities: <access denied>
10665  Kernel driver in use: i915
10666 </pre></p>
10667
10668 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
10669
10670 <p><pre>
10671 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
10672        ...
10673         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
10674         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
10675        ...
10676 }
10677 </pre></p>
10678
10679 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
10680 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
10681 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
10682 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
10683 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
10684 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
10685 yet shown up in
10686 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
10687 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
10688 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
10689 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
10690 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
10691 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
10692
10693 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
10694 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
10695 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
10696 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
10697 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
10698 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
10699 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
10700 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
10701 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
10702 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
10703 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
10704 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
10705
10706 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
10707 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
10708 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
10709 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
10710 backlight.</p>
10711
10712       </div>
10713       <div class="tags">
10714
10715
10716         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10717
10718
10719       </div>
10720     </div>
10721     <div class="padding"></div>
10722
10723     <div class="entry">
10724       <div class="title">
10725         <a href="https://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>
10726       </div>
10727       <div class="date">
10728         27th May 2013
10729       </div>
10730       <div class="body">
10731         <p>Two days ago, I asked
10732 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
10733 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
10734 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
10735 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
10736 and Windows 8.</p>
10737
10738 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
10739 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
10740 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
10741 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
10742 enough to tell.</p>
10743
10744 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
10745 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
10746 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
10747 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
10748 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
10749 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
10750 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
10751 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
10752 to follow.</p>
10753
10754 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
10755 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
10756 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
10757 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
10758 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
10759 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
10760 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
10761 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
10762
10763 <p>I've updated the
10764 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
10765 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
10766 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
10767 machine.</p>
10768
10769 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
10770 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
10771
10772       </div>
10773       <div class="tags">
10774
10775
10776         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10777
10778
10779       </div>
10780     </div>
10781     <div class="padding"></div>
10782
10783     <div class="entry">
10784       <div class="title">
10785         <a href="https://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>
10786       </div>
10787       <div class="date">
10788         25th May 2013
10789       </div>
10790       <div class="body">
10791         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
10792 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
10793 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
10794 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
10795 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
10796 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
10797
10798 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
10799 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
10800 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
10801 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
10802 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
10803 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
10804 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
10805 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
10806 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
10807 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
10808
10809 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
10810 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
10811 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
10812 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
10813 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
10814 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
10815
10816 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
10817 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
10818 on new Laptops?</p>
10819
10820       </div>
10821       <div class="tags">
10822
10823
10824         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10825
10826
10827       </div>
10828     </div>
10829     <div class="padding"></div>
10830
10831     <div class="entry">
10832       <div class="title">
10833         <a href="https://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>
10834       </div>
10835       <div class="date">
10836         17th May 2013
10837       </div>
10838       <div class="body">
10839         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
10840 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
10841 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
10842 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
10843 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
10844 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
10845 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
10846 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
10847 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
10848 donate some money</a>.
10849
10850 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
10851 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
10852 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
10853 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
10854 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
10855
10856 <p>The script,
10857 <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/>
10858 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
10859 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
10860 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
10861
10862 <ol>
10863
10864 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
10865 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
10866 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
10867     our configuration.</li>
10868 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
10869     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
10870     according to the profile specified in the config above,
10871     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
10872 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
10873     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
10874 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
10875
10876 </ol>
10877
10878 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
10879 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
10880 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
10881 the needed packages.</p>
10882
10883 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
10884 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
10885 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
10886 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
10887 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
10888 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
10889
10890 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
10891 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
10892 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
10893
10894 <p><pre>
10895 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
10896 DESKTOP="lxde"
10897 </pre></p>
10898
10899 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
10900 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
10901 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
10902 boot.</p>
10903
10904       </div>
10905       <div class="tags">
10906
10907
10908         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10909
10910
10911       </div>
10912     </div>
10913     <div class="padding"></div>
10914
10915     <div class="entry">
10916       <div class="title">
10917         <a href="https://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>
10918       </div>
10919       <div class="date">
10920         11th May 2013
10921       </div>
10922       <div class="body">
10923         <P>In January,
10924 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
10925 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
10926 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
10927 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
10928 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
10929 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
10930 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
10931 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
10932 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
10933 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
10934 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
10935 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
10936
10937 <p><table>
10938 <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>
10939 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
10940 <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>
10941 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
10942 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
10943 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
10944 <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>
10945 <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>
10946 <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>
10947 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
10948 </table></p>
10949
10950 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
10951 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
10952 available in experimental.</p>
10953
10954 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
10955 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
10956 for LEGO designers.</p>
10957
10958       </div>
10959       <div class="tags">
10960
10961
10962         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
10963
10964
10965       </div>
10966     </div>
10967     <div class="padding"></div>
10968
10969     <div class="entry">
10970       <div class="title">
10971         <a href="https://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>
10972       </div>
10973       <div class="date">
10974          5th May 2013
10975       </div>
10976       <div class="body">
10977         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
10978 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
10979 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
10980 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
10981 soon.</p>
10982
10983 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
10984 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
10985 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
10986 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
10987 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
10988 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
10989 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
10990 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
10991 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
10992 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
10993 Edu.</a>
10994
10995 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
10996 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
10997 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
10998 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
10999 follow.<p>
11000
11001       </div>
11002       <div class="tags">
11003
11004
11005         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11006
11007
11008       </div>
11009     </div>
11010     <div class="padding"></div>
11011
11012     <div class="entry">
11013       <div class="title">
11014         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
11015       </div>
11016       <div class="date">
11017          3rd April 2013
11018       </div>
11019       <div class="body">
11020         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
11021 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
11022 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
11023 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
11024
11025 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
11026 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
11027 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
11028 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
11029 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
11030 BTS. :)</p>
11031
11032       </div>
11033       <div class="tags">
11034
11035
11036         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11037
11038
11039       </div>
11040     </div>
11041     <div class="padding"></div>
11042
11043     <div class="entry">
11044       <div class="title">
11045         <a href="https://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>
11046       </div>
11047       <div class="date">
11048          2nd February 2013
11049       </div>
11050       <div class="body">
11051         <p>My
11052 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
11053 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
11054 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
11055 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
11056 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
11057 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
11058 version too.</p>
11059
11060 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
11061 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
11062 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
11063 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
11064 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
11065 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
11066 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
11067 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
11068
11069 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
11070 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
11071 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
11072 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
11073 it. :)</p>
11074
11075 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
11076 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
11077 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
11078
11079       </div>
11080       <div class="tags">
11081
11082
11083         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11084
11085
11086       </div>
11087     </div>
11088     <div class="padding"></div>
11089
11090     <div class="entry">
11091       <div class="title">
11092         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
11093       </div>
11094       <div class="date">
11095         22nd January 2013
11096       </div>
11097       <div class="body">
11098         <p>Yesterday, I
11099 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
11100 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
11101 pluggable hardware devices, which I
11102 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
11103 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
11104 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
11105 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
11106 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
11107 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
11108 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
11109 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
11110 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
11111 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
11112
11113 <pre>
11114 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
11115 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
11116 </pre>
11117
11118 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
11119 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
11120 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
11121 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
11122
11123 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
11124 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
11125 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
11126 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
11127 word.</p>
11128
11129 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
11130 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
11131 process.</p>
11132
11133 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
11134 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
11135
11136       </div>
11137       <div class="tags">
11138
11139
11140         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11141
11142
11143       </div>
11144     </div>
11145     <div class="padding"></div>
11146
11147     <div class="entry">
11148       <div class="title">
11149         <a href="https://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>
11150       </div>
11151       <div class="date">
11152         21st January 2013
11153       </div>
11154       <div class="body">
11155         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
11156 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
11157 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
11158 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
11159 it, fetch the
11160 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
11161 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
11162 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
11163 autostart script.</p>
11164
11165 <p>The design is simple:</p>
11166
11167 <ul>
11168
11169 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
11170 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
11171
11172 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
11173 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
11174 initially did.</li>
11175
11176 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
11177 the APT database, a database
11178 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
11179 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
11180
11181 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
11182 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
11183 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
11184 package or packages.</li>
11185
11186 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
11187 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
11188
11189 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
11190 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
11191
11192 </ul>
11193
11194 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
11195 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
11196 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
11197 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
11198
11199 <p><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
11200 <br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
11201 <br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
11202 <br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
11203 <br><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
11204
11205 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
11206 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
11207 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
11208 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
11209 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
11210 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
11211 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
11212 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
11213
11214 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
11215 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
11216 '<tt>svn checkout
11217 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
11218 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
11219 devscripts package.</p>
11220
11221 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
11222 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
11223 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
11224 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
11225 instructions</a> for details.</p>
11226
11227       </div>
11228       <div class="tags">
11229
11230
11231         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11232
11233
11234       </div>
11235     </div>
11236     <div class="padding"></div>
11237
11238     <div class="entry">
11239       <div class="title">
11240         <a href="https://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>
11241       </div>
11242       <div class="date">
11243         19th January 2013
11244       </div>
11245       <div class="body">
11246         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
11247 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
11248 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
11249 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
11250 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
11251 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
11252 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
11253 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
11254 not a durable solution.
11255
11256 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
11257 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
11258
11259 <ul>
11260
11261 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
11262   than A4).</li>
11263 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
11264 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
11265 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
11266 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
11267 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
11268 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
11269 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
11270 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
11271 size).</li>
11272 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
11273   X.org packages.</li>
11274 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
11275   the time).
11276
11277 </ul>
11278
11279 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
11280 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
11281 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
11282 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
11283 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
11284 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
11285 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
11286 still be useful.</p>
11287
11288 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
11289 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
11290 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
11291 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
11292 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
11293 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
11294
11295       </div>
11296       <div class="tags">
11297
11298
11299         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11300
11301
11302       </div>
11303     </div>
11304     <div class="padding"></div>
11305
11306     <div class="entry">
11307       <div class="title">
11308         <a href="https://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>
11309       </div>
11310       <div class="date">
11311         18th January 2013
11312       </div>
11313       <div class="body">
11314         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
11315 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
11316 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
11317 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
11318 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
11319 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
11320 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
11321
11322 <pre>
11323 #!/usr/bin/python
11324 import sys
11325 import apt
11326 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
11327     cache = apt.Cache()
11328     cache.open(None)
11329     thepkgs = []
11330     for pkg in cache:
11331         version = pkg.candidate
11332         if version is None:
11333             version = pkg.installed
11334         if version is None:
11335             continue
11336         record = version.record
11337         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
11338             continue
11339         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
11340         for t in mime_types:
11341             t = t.rstrip().strip()
11342             if t == mimetype:
11343                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
11344     return thepkgs
11345 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
11346 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
11347     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
11348 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
11349 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
11350     print "  %s" %pkg
11351 </pre>
11352
11353 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
11354
11355 <pre>
11356 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
11357 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
11358   gecko-mediaplayer
11359 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
11360 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
11361   browser-plugin-gnash
11362 %
11363 </pre>
11364
11365 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
11366 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
11367 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
11368 anyone working on adding it?</p>
11369
11370 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
11371 request for icweasel support for this feature is
11372 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
11373 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
11374 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
11375 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
11376
11377       </div>
11378       <div class="tags">
11379
11380
11381         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11382
11383
11384       </div>
11385     </div>
11386     <div class="padding"></div>
11387
11388     <div class="entry">
11389       <div class="title">
11390         <a href="https://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>
11391       </div>
11392       <div class="date">
11393         16th January 2013
11394       </div>
11395       <div class="body">
11396         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
11397 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
11398 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
11399 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
11400 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
11401 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
11402 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
11403 downloaded by the browser.</p>
11404
11405 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
11406 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
11407 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
11408 can be found on the
11409 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
11410 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
11411 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
11412 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
11413 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
11414
11415 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
11416
11417 <pre>
11418   count MIME type
11419   ----- -----------------------
11420      32 text/plain
11421      30 audio/mpeg
11422      29 image/png
11423      28 image/jpeg
11424      27 application/ogg
11425      26 audio/x-mp3
11426      25 image/tiff
11427      25 image/gif
11428      22 image/bmp
11429      22 audio/x-wav
11430      20 audio/x-flac
11431      19 audio/x-mpegurl
11432      18 video/x-ms-asf
11433      18 audio/x-musepack
11434      18 audio/x-mpeg
11435      18 application/x-ogg
11436      17 video/mpeg
11437      17 audio/x-scpls
11438      17 audio/ogg
11439      16 video/x-ms-wmv
11440 </pre>
11441
11442 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
11443
11444 <pre>
11445   count MIME type
11446   ----- -----------------------
11447      33 text/plain
11448      32 image/png
11449      32 image/jpeg
11450      29 audio/mpeg
11451      27 image/gif
11452      26 image/tiff
11453      26 application/ogg
11454      25 audio/x-mp3
11455      22 image/bmp
11456      21 audio/x-wav
11457      19 audio/x-mpegurl
11458      19 audio/x-mpeg
11459      18 video/mpeg
11460      18 audio/x-scpls
11461      18 audio/x-flac
11462      18 application/x-ogg
11463      17 video/x-ms-asf
11464      17 text/html
11465      17 audio/x-musepack
11466      16 image/x-xbitmap
11467 </pre>
11468
11469 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
11470
11471 <pre>
11472   count MIME type
11473   ----- -----------------------
11474      31 text/plain
11475      31 image/png
11476      31 image/jpeg
11477      29 audio/mpeg
11478      28 application/ogg
11479      27 image/gif
11480      26 image/tiff
11481      26 audio/x-mp3
11482      23 audio/x-wav
11483      22 image/bmp
11484      21 audio/x-flac
11485      20 audio/x-mpegurl
11486      19 audio/x-mpeg
11487      18 video/x-ms-asf
11488      18 video/mpeg
11489      18 audio/x-scpls
11490      18 application/x-ogg
11491      17 audio/x-musepack
11492      16 video/x-ms-wmv
11493      16 video/x-msvideo
11494 </pre>
11495
11496 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
11497 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
11498 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
11499 issues.</p>
11500
11501 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
11502 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
11503
11504       </div>
11505       <div class="tags">
11506
11507
11508         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11509
11510
11511       </div>
11512     </div>
11513     <div class="padding"></div>
11514
11515     <div class="entry">
11516       <div class="title">
11517         <a href="https://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>
11518       </div>
11519       <div class="date">
11520         15th January 2013
11521       </div>
11522       <div class="body">
11523         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
11524 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
11525 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
11526 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
11527 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
11528 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
11529 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
11530 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
11531 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
11532 packages.</p>
11533
11534 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
11535 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
11536 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
11537 modalias.</p>
11538
11539 <p><blockquote>
11540 Package: package-name
11541 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
11542 </blockquote></p>
11543
11544 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
11545 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
11546
11547 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
11548 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
11549
11550 <p><blockquote>
11551 Package: cheese
11552 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
11553 </blockquote></p>
11554
11555 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
11556 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
11557
11558 <p><blockquote>
11559 Package: pcmciautils
11560 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
11561 </blockquote></p>
11562
11563 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
11564 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
11565
11566 <p><blockquote>
11567 Package: colorhug-client
11568 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
11569 </blockquote></p>
11570
11571 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
11572 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
11573 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
11574
11575 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
11576 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
11577 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
11578 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
11579 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
11580 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
11581 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
11582 Raring.</p>
11583
11584 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
11585 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
11586 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
11587 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
11588 try the
11589 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
11590 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
11591 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
11592 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
11593
11594 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
11595 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
11596
11597 <p><blockquote>
11598 % ./hw-support-lookup
11599 <br>yubikey-personalization
11600 <br>%
11601 </blockquote></p>
11602
11603 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
11604 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
11605
11606 <p><blockquote>
11607 % ./hw-support-lookup
11608 <br>pcmciautils
11609 <br>%
11610 </blockquote></p>
11611
11612 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
11613 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
11614 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
11615
11616 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
11617 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
11618 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
11619 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
11620 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
11621 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
11622 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
11623 see if it work.</p>
11624
11625 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
11626 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
11627 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
11628 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
11629
11630       </div>
11631       <div class="tags">
11632
11633
11634         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11635
11636
11637       </div>
11638     </div>
11639     <div class="padding"></div>
11640
11641     <div class="entry">
11642       <div class="title">
11643         <a href="https://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>
11644       </div>
11645       <div class="date">
11646         14th January 2013
11647       </div>
11648       <div class="body">
11649         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
11650 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
11651 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
11652 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
11653 in
11654 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
11655 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
11656
11657 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
11658
11659 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
11660 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
11661 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
11662 &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;,
11663 &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
11664 &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;.
11665
11666 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
11667 this shell script:</p>
11668
11669 <pre>
11670 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
11671 </pre>
11672
11673 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
11674 using modinfo:</p>
11675
11676 <pre>
11677 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
11678 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
11679 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
11680 %
11681 </pre>
11682
11683 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
11684
11685 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
11686 Bridge memory controller:</p>
11687
11688 <p><blockquote>
11689 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
11690 </blockquote></p>
11691
11692 <p>This represent these values:</p>
11693
11694 <pre>
11695  v   00008086  (vendor)
11696  d   00002770  (device)
11697  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
11698  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
11699  bc  06        (bus class)
11700  sc  00        (bus subclass)
11701  i   00        (interface)
11702 </pre>
11703
11704 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
11705 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
11706 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
11707 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
11708
11709 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
11710 means.</p>
11711
11712 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
11713
11714 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
11715 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
11716
11717 <p><blockquote>
11718 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
11719 </blockquote></p>
11720
11721 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
11722
11723 <pre>
11724  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
11725  p    0001  (device product)
11726  d    0206  (bcddevice)
11727  dc     09  (device class)
11728  dsc    00  (device subclass)
11729  dp     00  (device protocol)
11730  ic     09  (interface class)
11731  isc    00  (interface subclass)
11732  ip     00  (interface protocol)
11733 </pre>
11734
11735 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
11736 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
11737 these alias entries show up:</p>
11738
11739 <p><blockquote>
11740 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
11741 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
11742 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
11743 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
11744 </blockquote></p>
11745
11746 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
11747 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
11748 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
11749
11750 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
11751
11752 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
11753 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
11754
11755 <p><blockquote>
11756 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
11757 </blockquote></p>
11758
11759 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
11760
11761 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
11762
11763 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
11764 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
11765 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
11766
11767 <p><blockquote>
11768 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
11769 </blockquote></p>
11770
11771 <p>The values present are</p>
11772
11773 <pre>
11774  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
11775  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
11776  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
11777  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
11778  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
11779  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
11780  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
11781  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
11782  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
11783  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
11784  ct   10             (chassis type)
11785  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
11786 </pre>
11787
11788 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
11789 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
11790
11791 <pre>
11792   3 Desktop
11793   4 Low Profile Desktop
11794   5 Pizza Box
11795   6 Mini Tower
11796   7 Tower
11797   8 Portable
11798   9 Laptop
11799  10 Notebook
11800  11 Hand Held
11801  12 Docking Station
11802  13 All In One
11803  14 Sub Notebook
11804  15 Space-saving
11805  16 Lunch Box
11806  17 Main Server Chassis
11807  18 Expansion Chassis
11808  19 Sub Chassis
11809  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
11810  21 Peripheral Chassis
11811  22 RAID Chassis
11812  23 Rack Mount Chassis
11813  24 Sealed-case PC
11814  25 Multi-system
11815  26 CompactPCI
11816  27 AdvancedTCA
11817  28 Blade
11818  29 Blade Enclosing
11819 </pre>
11820
11821 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
11822 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
11823 claim it is a desktop.</p>
11824
11825 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
11826
11827 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
11828 test machine:</p>
11829
11830 <p><blockquote>
11831 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
11832 </blockquote></p>
11833
11834 <p>The values present are</p>
11835
11836 <pre>
11837   ty  01  (type)
11838   pr  00  (prototype)
11839   id  00  (id)
11840   ex  00  (extra)
11841 </pre>
11842
11843 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
11844 the valid values are.</p>
11845
11846 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
11847
11848 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
11849 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
11850 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
11851 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
11852 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
11853 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
11854 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
11855
11856 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
11857
11858 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
11859 one can use the following shell script:</p>
11860
11861 <pre>
11862   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
11863     echo "$id" ; \
11864     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
11865   done
11866 </pre>
11867
11868 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
11869 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
11870
11871 <pre>
11872   acpi:ACPI0003:
11873     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
11874   acpi:device:
11875   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
11876   acpi:IBM0068:
11877     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
11878     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
11879     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
11880     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
11881   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
11882     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
11883     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
11884     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
11885   [...]
11886 </pre>
11887
11888 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
11889 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
11890 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
11891 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
11892
11893 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
11894 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
11895 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
11896
11897       </div>
11898       <div class="tags">
11899
11900
11901         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
11902
11903
11904       </div>
11905     </div>
11906     <div class="padding"></div>
11907
11908     <div class="entry">
11909       <div class="title">
11910         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
11911       </div>
11912       <div class="date">
11913         10th January 2013
11914       </div>
11915       <div class="body">
11916         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
11917 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
11918 Launcher and updated the Debian package
11919 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
11920 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
11921 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
11922 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
11923 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
11924 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
11925 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
11926 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
11927 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
11928 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
11929 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
11930 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
11931 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
11932 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
11933 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
11934
11935       </div>
11936       <div class="tags">
11937
11938
11939         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
11940
11941
11942       </div>
11943     </div>
11944     <div class="padding"></div>
11945
11946     <div class="entry">
11947       <div class="title">
11948         <a href="https://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>
11949       </div>
11950       <div class="date">
11951          9th January 2013
11952       </div>
11953       <div class="body">
11954         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
11955 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
11956 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
11957 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
11958 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
11959 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
11960 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
11961 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
11962 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
11963 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
11964 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
11965
11966 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
11967 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
11968 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
11969 simple:
11970
11971 <ul>
11972
11973 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
11974   starting when a user log in.</li>
11975
11976 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
11977   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
11978
11979 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
11980   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
11981   packages.</li>
11982
11983 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
11984   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
11985
11986 </ul>
11987
11988 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
11989 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
11990 discover database to find packages and
11991 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
11992 packages.</p>
11993
11994 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
11995 draft package is now checked into
11996 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
11997 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
11998 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
11999 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
12000 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
12001 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
12002 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
12003 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
12004 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
12005 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
12006 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
12007 because of the freeze).</p>
12008
12009 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
12010 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
12011 inserted):</p>
12012
12013 <p align="center"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
12014
12015 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
12016 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
12017 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
12018
12019 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
12020 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
12021 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
12022 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
12023 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
12024 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
12025 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
12026
12027 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
12028 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
12029 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
12030 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
12031 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
12032 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
12033 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
12034 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
12035 not be installed?</p>
12036
12037 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
12038 please send me an email. :)</p>
12039
12040       </div>
12041       <div class="tags">
12042
12043
12044         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
12045
12046
12047       </div>
12048     </div>
12049     <div class="padding"></div>
12050
12051     <div class="entry">
12052       <div class="title">
12053         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
12054       </div>
12055       <div class="date">
12056          2nd January 2013
12057       </div>
12058       <div class="body">
12059         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
12060 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
12061 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
12062 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
12063 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
12064 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
12065 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
12066 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
12067 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
12068 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
12069
12070 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
12071 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
12072 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
12073
12074       </div>
12075       <div class="tags">
12076
12077
12078         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
12079
12080
12081       </div>
12082     </div>
12083     <div class="padding"></div>
12084
12085     <div class="entry">
12086       <div class="title">
12087         <a href="https://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>
12088       </div>
12089       <div class="date">
12090         25th December 2012
12091       </div>
12092       <div class="body">
12093         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
12094 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
12095
12096 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
12097 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
12098 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
12099 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
12100 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
12101 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
12102 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
12103 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
12104 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
12105 name.</p>
12106
12107 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
12108 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
12109 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
12110
12111 <blockquote><pre>
12112 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
12113 cd bitcoin
12114 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
12115 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
12116 </pre></blockquote>
12117
12118 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
12119 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
12120 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
12121 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
12122 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
12123 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
12124 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
12125 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
12126 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
12127
12128 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
12129 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
12130 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
12131
12132       </div>
12133       <div class="tags">
12134
12135
12136         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12137
12138
12139       </div>
12140     </div>
12141     <div class="padding"></div>
12142
12143     <div class="entry">
12144       <div class="title">
12145         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
12146       </div>
12147       <div class="date">
12148         21st December 2012
12149       </div>
12150       <div class="body">
12151         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
12152 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
12153 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
12154 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
12155 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
12156 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
12157 is now maintained by a
12158 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
12159 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
12160 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
12161 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
12162 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
12163 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
12164 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
12165 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
12166 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
12167 Corallo in a
12168 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
12169 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
12170 Debian package.</p>
12171
12172 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
12173 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
12174 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
12175 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
12176 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
12177 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
12178 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
12179 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
12180 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
12181 new version to unstable.
12182
12183 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
12184 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
12185 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
12186 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
12187 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
12188 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
12189 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
12190 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
12191 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
12192 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
12193 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
12194 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
12195 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
12196 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
12197 have not tested them.</p>
12198
12199 <p>My
12200 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
12201 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
12202 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
12203 years ago, as can be
12204 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
12205 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
12206 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
12207 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
12208 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
12209 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
12210 the same address as last time,
12211 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
12212
12213       </div>
12214       <div class="tags">
12215
12216
12217         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12218
12219
12220       </div>
12221     </div>
12222     <div class="padding"></div>
12223
12224     <div class="entry">
12225       <div class="title">
12226         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
12227       </div>
12228       <div class="date">
12229          7th September 2012
12230       </div>
12231       <div class="body">
12232         <p>As I
12233 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
12234 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
12235 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
12236 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
12237 repository for the project</a>.</p>
12238
12239 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
12240 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
12241 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
12242 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
12243
12244 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
12245 PostScript formats at
12246 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
12247 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
12248
12249       </div>
12250       <div class="tags">
12251
12252
12253         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
12254
12255
12256       </div>
12257     </div>
12258     <div class="padding"></div>
12259
12260     <div class="entry">
12261       <div class="title">
12262         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
12263       </div>
12264       <div class="date">
12265         16th August 2012
12266       </div>
12267       <div class="body">
12268         <p>I dag fyller
12269 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
12270 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
12271 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
12272
12273       </div>
12274       <div class="tags">
12275
12276
12277         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
12278
12279
12280       </div>
12281     </div>
12282     <div class="padding"></div>
12283
12284     <div class="entry">
12285       <div class="title">
12286         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
12287       </div>
12288       <div class="date">
12289         24th June 2012
12290       </div>
12291       <div class="body">
12292         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
12293 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
12294 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
12295 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
12296 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
12297 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
12298 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
12299 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
12300 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
12301 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
12302 missing in my book.</p>
12303
12304 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
12305 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
12306 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
12307 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
12308 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
12309 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
12310 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
12311
12312       </div>
12313       <div class="tags">
12314
12315
12316         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
12317
12318
12319       </div>
12320     </div>
12321     <div class="padding"></div>
12322
12323     <div class="entry">
12324       <div class="title">
12325         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
12326       </div>
12327       <div class="date">
12328         21st November 2011
12329       </div>
12330       <div class="body">
12331         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
12332 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
12333 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
12334 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
12335 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
12336 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
12337 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
12338 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
12339 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
12340 the tools to do so.</p>
12341
12342 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
12343 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
12344 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
12345 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
12346
12347 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
12348 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
12349 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
12350 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
12351 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
12352 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
12353 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
12354 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
12355
12356 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
12357 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
12358 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
12359
12360 <p><pre>
12361 #!/usr/bin/perl
12362 use strict;
12363 use warnings;
12364 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
12365 BEGIN {
12366     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
12367     my %rhelmodules = (
12368         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
12369         );
12370     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
12371         eval "use $module;";
12372         if ($@) {
12373             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
12374             system("yum install -y $pkg");
12375             eval "use $module;";
12376         }
12377     }
12378 }
12379 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
12380
12381 upgrade_dell();
12382
12383 exit 0;
12384
12385 sub run_firmware_script {
12386     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
12387     unless ($script) {
12388         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
12389         exit 1
12390     }
12391     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
12392
12393     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
12394         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
12395     } else {
12396         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
12397     }
12398 }
12399
12400 sub run_firmware_scripts {
12401     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
12402     # Run firmware packages
12403     for my $dir (@dirs) {
12404         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
12405         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
12406         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
12407             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
12408             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
12409         }
12410         closedir $dh;
12411     }
12412 }
12413
12414 sub download {
12415     my $url = shift;
12416     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
12417     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
12418 }
12419
12420 sub upgrade_dell {
12421     my @dirs;
12422     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
12423     chomp $product;
12424
12425     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
12426
12427         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
12428         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
12429
12430         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
12431             CLEANUP => 1
12432             );
12433         chdir($tmpdir);
12434         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
12435         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
12436         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
12437         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
12438         my $fwopts = "-q";
12439         if (@paths) {
12440             for my $url (@paths) {
12441                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
12442             }
12443             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
12444         } else {
12445             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
12446             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
12447         }
12448         chdir('/');
12449     } else {
12450         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
12451         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
12452     }
12453 }
12454
12455 sub fetch_dell_fw {
12456     my $path = shift;
12457     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
12458     download($url);
12459 }
12460
12461 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
12462 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
12463 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
12464 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
12465     my $filename = shift;
12466
12467     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
12468     chomp $product;
12469     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
12470
12471     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
12472
12473     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
12474     my @paths;
12475     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
12476         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
12477         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
12478         my $oscode;
12479         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
12480             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
12481         } else {
12482             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
12483         }
12484         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
12485         {
12486             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
12487         }
12488     }
12489     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
12490         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
12491
12492         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
12493         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
12494
12495         my $cpath = $component->{path};
12496         for my $path (@paths) {
12497             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
12498                 push(@paths, $cpath);
12499             }
12500         }
12501     }
12502     return @paths;
12503 }
12504 </pre>
12505
12506 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
12507 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
12508 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
12509 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
12510 outdated.</p>
12511
12512       </div>
12513       <div class="tags">
12514
12515
12516         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12517
12518
12519       </div>
12520     </div>
12521     <div class="padding"></div>
12522
12523     <div class="entry">
12524       <div class="title">
12525         <a href="https://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>
12526       </div>
12527       <div class="date">
12528          4th August 2011
12529       </div>
12530       <div class="body">
12531         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
12532 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
12533 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
12534 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
12535 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
12536 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
12537 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
12538 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
12539 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
12540
12541 <p><blockquote>
12542 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
12543 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
12544 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
12545 </blockquote></p>
12546
12547 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
12548 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
12549 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
12550 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
12551 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
12552 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
12553 hard to explain.</p>
12554
12555 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
12556 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
12557 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
12558 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
12559 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
12560 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
12561 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
12562 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
12563 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
12564 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
12565 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
12566 mode).</p>
12567
12568 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
12569 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
12570 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
12571 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
12572 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
12573 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
12574 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
12575 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
12576 after visiting single user mode.</p>
12577
12578 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
12579 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
12580 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
12581 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
12582 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
12583 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
12584 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
12585 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
12586
12587 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
12588 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
12589 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
12590
12591       </div>
12592       <div class="tags">
12593
12594
12595         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12596
12597
12598       </div>
12599     </div>
12600     <div class="padding"></div>
12601
12602     <div class="entry">
12603       <div class="title">
12604         <a href="https://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>
12605       </div>
12606       <div class="date">
12607         30th July 2011
12608       </div>
12609       <div class="body">
12610         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
12611 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
12612 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
12613 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
12614 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
12615 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
12616 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
12617 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
12618 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
12619 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
12620 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
12621 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
12622 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
12623
12624 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
12625 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
12626 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
12627 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
12628 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
12629 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
12630 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
12631 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
12632 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
12633
12634 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
12635 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
12636 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
12637 is presented.</p>
12638
12639 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
12640 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
12641 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
12642 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
12643 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
12644 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
12645 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
12646 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
12647 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
12648 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
12649 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
12650 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
12651 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
12652 find time to push this forward.</p>
12653
12654       </div>
12655       <div class="tags">
12656
12657
12658         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
12659
12660
12661       </div>
12662     </div>
12663     <div class="padding"></div>
12664
12665     <div class="entry">
12666       <div class="title">
12667         <a href="https://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>
12668       </div>
12669       <div class="date">
12670         29th July 2011
12671       </div>
12672       <div class="body">
12673         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
12674 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
12675 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
12676 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
12677 issues.</p>
12678
12679 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
12680 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
12681 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
12682
12683 <ol>
12684
12685 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
12686 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
12687 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
12688 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
12689 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
12690 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
12691 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
12692 Debian.</li>
12693
12694 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
12695 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
12696 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
12697 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
12698 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
12699 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
12700 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
12701 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
12702 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
12703 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
12704 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
12705 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
12706 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
12707
12708 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
12709 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
12710 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
12711 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
12712 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
12713 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
12714 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
12715 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
12716 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
12717 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
12718
12719 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
12720 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
12721 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
12722 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
12723 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
12724 latter behaviour.</li>
12725
12726 </ol>
12727
12728 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
12729 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
12730 it do not matter much.</p>
12731
12732 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
12733 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
12734 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
12735
12736       </div>
12737       <div class="tags">
12738
12739
12740         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
12741
12742
12743       </div>
12744     </div>
12745     <div class="padding"></div>
12746
12747     <div class="entry">
12748       <div class="title">
12749         <a href="https://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>
12750       </div>
12751       <div class="date">
12752         26th July 2011
12753       </div>
12754       <div class="body">
12755         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
12756 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
12757 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
12758 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
12759 security support for a few years.</p>
12760
12761 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
12762 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
12763 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
12764 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
12765 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
12766 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
12767 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
12768 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
12769 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
12770 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
12771 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
12772 easier in the future.</p>
12773
12774 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
12775 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
12776 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
12777 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
12778 do not have time for.</p>
12779
12780       </div>
12781       <div class="tags">
12782
12783
12784         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
12785
12786
12787       </div>
12788     </div>
12789     <div class="padding"></div>
12790
12791     <div class="entry">
12792       <div class="title">
12793         <a href="https://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>
12794       </div>
12795       <div class="date">
12796          3rd April 2011
12797       </div>
12798       <div class="body">
12799         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
12800 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
12801 update in English.</p>
12802
12803 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
12804 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
12805 of the British service
12806 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
12807 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
12808 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
12809 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
12810 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
12811 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
12812 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
12813 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
12814 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
12815 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
12816 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
12817 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
12818 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
12819
12820 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
12821 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
12822 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
12823 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
12824 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
12825 public infrastructure.</p>
12826
12827 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
12828 such service?</p>
12829
12830       </div>
12831       <div class="tags">
12832
12833
12834         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
12835
12836
12837       </div>
12838     </div>
12839     <div class="padding"></div>
12840
12841     <div class="entry">
12842       <div class="title">
12843         <a href="https://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>
12844       </div>
12845       <div class="date">
12846         28th January 2011
12847       </div>
12848       <div class="body">
12849         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
12850 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
12851 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
12852 available on the Internet, and check our locally
12853 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
12854 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
12855 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
12856 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
12857 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
12858 out which security holes were present in our free software
12859 collection.</p>
12860
12861 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
12862 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
12863 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
12864 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
12865 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
12866 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
12867 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
12868 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
12869 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
12870 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
12871 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
12872 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
12873 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
12874 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
12875 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
12876 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
12877
12878 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
12879 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
12880 check out, one could look up
12881 <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
12882 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
12883 The most recent one is
12884 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
12885 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
12886 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
12887
12888 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
12889 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
12890 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
12891 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
12892 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
12893 security issues out.</p>
12894
12895 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
12896 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
12897 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
12898 RHEL is providing
12899 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
12900 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
12901 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
12902
12903 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
12904 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
12905 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
12906 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
12907 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
12908 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
12909 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
12910 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
12911 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
12912 established soon.</p>
12913
12914 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
12915 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
12916 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
12917 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
12918 for their packages.</p>
12919
12920       </div>
12921       <div class="tags">
12922
12923
12924         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
12925
12926
12927       </div>
12928     </div>
12929     <div class="padding"></div>
12930
12931     <div class="entry">
12932       <div class="title">
12933         <a href="https://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>
12934       </div>
12935       <div class="date">
12936         23rd January 2011
12937       </div>
12938       <div class="body">
12939         <p>In the
12940 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
12941 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
12942 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
12943 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
12944 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
12945 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
12946 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
12947 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
12948 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
12949 one of my machines like this:</p>
12950
12951 <pre>
12952 loaded modules:
12953 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
12954 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
12955 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
12956 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
12957 10de:03ec pata_amd
12958 10de:03f6 sata_nv
12959 1022:1103 k8temp
12960 109e:036e bttv
12961 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
12962 11ab:4364 sky2
12963 </pre>
12964
12965 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
12966 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
12967
12968 <pre>
12969 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
12970     echo loaded pci modules:
12971     (
12972         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
12973         for address in * ; do
12974             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
12975                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
12976                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
12977                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
12978                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
12979                     echo "$id $module"
12980                 fi
12981             fi
12982         done
12983     )
12984     echo
12985 fi
12986 </pre>
12987
12988 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
12989 mappings:</p>
12990
12991 <pre>
12992 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
12993     echo loaded usb modules:
12994     (
12995         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
12996         for address in * ; do
12997             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
12998                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
12999                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
13000                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
13001                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
13002                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
13003                         echo "$id $module"
13004                     fi
13005                 fi
13006             fi
13007         done
13008     )
13009     echo
13010 fi
13011 </pre>
13012
13013 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
13014 well.</p>
13015
13016       </div>
13017       <div class="tags">
13018
13019
13020         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13021
13022
13023       </div>
13024     </div>
13025     <div class="padding"></div>
13026
13027     <div class="entry">
13028       <div class="title">
13029         <a href="https://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>
13030       </div>
13031       <div class="date">
13032         22nd December 2010
13033       </div>
13034       <div class="body">
13035         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
13036 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
13037 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
13038 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
13039 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
13040 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
13041 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
13042 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
13043 university.</p>
13044
13045 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
13046 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
13047 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
13048 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
13049 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
13050 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
13051 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
13052 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
13053
13054 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
13055 I perform on a new model.</p>
13056
13057 <ul>
13058
13059 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
13060 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
13061 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
13062
13063 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
13064 installation, X.org is working.</li>
13065
13066 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
13067 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
13068 reported by the program.</li>
13069
13070 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
13071 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
13072 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
13073 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
13074 normally test this by playing
13075 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
13076 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
13077
13078 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
13079 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
13080
13081 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
13082 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
13083
13084 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
13085 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
13086
13087 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
13088 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
13089 few.</li>
13090
13091 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
13092 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
13093 notice this.</li>
13094
13095 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
13096 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
13097 resume.</li>
13098
13099 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
13100 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
13101 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
13102 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
13103 not.</li>
13104
13105 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
13106 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
13107 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
13108 existence.</li>
13109
13110 </ul>
13111
13112 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
13113 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
13114 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
13115 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
13116 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
13117 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
13118 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
13119 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
13120
13121       </div>
13122       <div class="tags">
13123
13124
13125         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13126
13127
13128       </div>
13129     </div>
13130     <div class="padding"></div>
13131
13132     <div class="entry">
13133       <div class="title">
13134         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
13135       </div>
13136       <div class="date">
13137         11th December 2010
13138       </div>
13139       <div class="body">
13140         <p>As I continue to explore
13141 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
13142 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
13143 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
13144
13145 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
13146 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
13147 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
13148 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
13149 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
13150 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
13151 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
13152 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
13153 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
13154 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
13155 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
13156 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
13157 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
13158 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
13159 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
13160 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
13161 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
13162 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
13163 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
13164 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
13165
13166 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
13167 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
13168 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
13169 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
13170 If the Skolelinux foundation
13171 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
13172 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
13173 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
13174 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
13175 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
13176 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
13177 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
13178 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
13179
13180 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
13181 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
13182 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
13183 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
13184 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
13185 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
13186 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
13187 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
13188 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
13189 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
13190 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
13191 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
13192 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
13193 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
13194 currencies.</p>
13195
13196 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
13197 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
13198 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
13199 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
13200 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
13201 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
13202 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
13203 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
13204 BitCoins.  Check out
13205 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
13206 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
13207 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
13208 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
13209 yet.</p>
13210
13211 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
13212 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
13213 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
13214 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
13215 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
13216
13217       </div>
13218       <div class="tags">
13219
13220
13221         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
13222
13223
13224       </div>
13225     </div>
13226     <div class="padding"></div>
13227
13228     <div class="entry">
13229       <div class="title">
13230         <a href="https://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>
13231       </div>
13232       <div class="date">
13233         10th December 2010
13234       </div>
13235       <div class="body">
13236         <p>With this weeks lawless
13237 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
13238 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
13239 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
13240 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
13241 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
13242 A blog post from
13243 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
13244 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
13245 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
13246 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
13247 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
13248 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
13249 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
13250
13251 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
13252 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
13253 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
13254 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
13255 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
13256 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
13257 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
13258 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
13259 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
13260 Debian</a> soon.</p>
13261
13262 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
13263 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
13264 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
13265 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
13266 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
13267 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
13268 you can even get
13269 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
13270 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
13271 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
13272 on the current exchange rates.</p>
13273
13274 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
13275 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
13276 donations to the address
13277 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
13278
13279       </div>
13280       <div class="tags">
13281
13282
13283         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
13284
13285
13286       </div>
13287     </div>
13288     <div class="padding"></div>
13289
13290     <div class="entry">
13291       <div class="title">
13292         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
13293       </div>
13294       <div class="date">
13295         27th November 2010
13296       </div>
13297       <div class="body">
13298         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
13299 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
13300 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
13301 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
13302 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
13303 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
13304 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
13305 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
13306
13307 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
13308 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
13309 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
13310 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
13311 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
13312 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
13313 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
13314 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
13315 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
13316 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
13317 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
13318
13319 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
13320 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
13321 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
13322 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
13323 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
13324 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
13325 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
13326 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
13327 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
13328 what is going on.</p>
13329
13330       </div>
13331       <div class="tags">
13332
13333
13334         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
13335
13336
13337       </div>
13338     </div>
13339     <div class="padding"></div>
13340
13341     <div class="entry">
13342       <div class="title">
13343         <a href="https://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>
13344       </div>
13345       <div class="date">
13346         22nd November 2010
13347       </div>
13348       <div class="body">
13349         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
13350 upgrade testing of the
13351 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
13352 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
13353 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
13354 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
13355
13356 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
13357
13358 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
13359
13360 <blockquote><p>
13361   apache2.2-bin
13362   aptdaemon
13363   baobab
13364   binfmt-support
13365   browser-plugin-gnash
13366   cheese-common
13367   cli-common
13368   cups-pk-helper
13369   dmz-cursor-theme
13370   empathy
13371   empathy-common
13372   freedesktop-sound-theme
13373   freeglut3
13374   gconf-defaults-service
13375   gdm-themes
13376   gedit-plugins
13377   geoclue
13378   geoclue-hostip
13379   geoclue-localnet
13380   geoclue-manual
13381   geoclue-yahoo
13382   gnash
13383   gnash-common
13384   gnome
13385   gnome-backgrounds
13386   gnome-cards-data
13387   gnome-codec-install
13388   gnome-core
13389   gnome-desktop-environment
13390   gnome-disk-utility
13391   gnome-screenshot
13392   gnome-search-tool
13393   gnome-session-canberra
13394   gnome-system-log
13395   gnome-themes-extras
13396   gnome-themes-more
13397   gnome-user-share
13398   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
13399   gstreamer0.10-tools
13400   gtk2-engines
13401   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
13402   gtk2-engines-smooth
13403   hamster-applet
13404   libapache2-mod-dnssd
13405   libapr1
13406   libaprutil1
13407   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
13408   libaprutil1-ldap
13409   libart2.0-cil
13410   libboost-date-time1.42.0
13411   libboost-python1.42.0
13412   libboost-thread1.42.0
13413   libchamplain-0.4-0
13414   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
13415   libcheese-gtk18
13416   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
13417   libcryptui0
13418   libdiscid0
13419   libelf1
13420   libepc-1.0-2
13421   libepc-common
13422   libepc-ui-1.0-2
13423   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
13424   libfreerdp0
13425   libgconf2.0-cil
13426   libgdata-common
13427   libgdata7
13428   libgdu-gtk0
13429   libgee2
13430   libgeoclue0
13431   libgexiv2-0
13432   libgif4
13433   libglade2.0-cil
13434   libglib2.0-cil
13435   libgmime2.4-cil
13436   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
13437   libgnome2.24-cil
13438   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
13439   libgpod-common
13440   libgpod4
13441   libgtk2.0-cil
13442   libgtkglext1
13443   libgtksourceview2.0-common
13444   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
13445   libmono-addins0.2-cil
13446   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
13447   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
13448   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
13449   libmono-posix2.0-cil
13450   libmono-security2.0-cil
13451   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
13452   libmono-system2.0-cil
13453   libmtp8
13454   libmusicbrainz3-6
13455   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
13456   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
13457   libopal3.6.8
13458   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
13459   libpt2.6.7
13460   libpython2.6
13461   librpm1
13462   librpmio1
13463   libsdl1.2debian
13464   libsrtp0
13465   libssh-4
13466   libtelepathy-farsight0
13467   libtelepathy-glib0
13468   libtidy-0.99-0
13469   media-player-info
13470   mesa-utils
13471   mono-2.0-gac
13472   mono-gac
13473   mono-runtime
13474   nautilus-sendto
13475   nautilus-sendto-empathy
13476   p7zip-full
13477   pkg-config
13478   python-aptdaemon
13479   python-aptdaemon-gtk
13480   python-axiom
13481   python-beautifulsoup
13482   python-bugbuddy
13483   python-clientform
13484   python-coherence
13485   python-configobj
13486   python-crypto
13487   python-cupshelpers
13488   python-elementtree
13489   python-epsilon
13490   python-evolution
13491   python-feedparser
13492   python-gdata
13493   python-gdbm
13494   python-gst0.10
13495   python-gtkglext1
13496   python-gtksourceview2
13497   python-httplib2
13498   python-louie
13499   python-mako
13500   python-markupsafe
13501   python-mechanize
13502   python-nevow
13503   python-notify
13504   python-opengl
13505   python-openssl
13506   python-pam
13507   python-pkg-resources
13508   python-pyasn1
13509   python-pysqlite2
13510   python-rdflib
13511   python-serial
13512   python-tagpy
13513   python-twisted-bin
13514   python-twisted-conch
13515   python-twisted-core
13516   python-twisted-web
13517   python-utidylib
13518   python-webkit
13519   python-xdg
13520   python-zope.interface
13521   remmina
13522   remmina-plugin-data
13523   remmina-plugin-rdp
13524   remmina-plugin-vnc
13525   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
13526   rhythmbox-plugins
13527   rpm-common
13528   rpm2cpio
13529   seahorse-plugins
13530   shotwell
13531   software-center
13532   system-config-printer-udev
13533   telepathy-gabble
13534   telepathy-mission-control-5
13535   telepathy-salut
13536   tomboy
13537   totem
13538   totem-coherence
13539   totem-mozilla
13540   totem-plugins
13541   transmission-common
13542   xdg-user-dirs
13543   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
13544   xserver-xephyr
13545 </p></blockquote>
13546
13547 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
13548
13549 <blockquote><p>
13550   cheese
13551   ekiga
13552   eog
13553   epiphany-extensions
13554   evolution-exchange
13555   fast-user-switch-applet
13556   file-roller
13557   gcalctool
13558   gconf-editor
13559   gdm
13560   gedit
13561   gedit-common
13562   gnome-games
13563   gnome-games-data
13564   gnome-nettool
13565   gnome-system-tools
13566   gnome-themes
13567   gnuchess
13568   gucharmap
13569   guile-1.8-libs
13570   libavahi-ui0
13571   libdmx1
13572   libgalago3
13573   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
13574   libgtksourceview2.0-0
13575   liblircclient0
13576   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
13577   libspeexdsp1
13578   libsvga1
13579   rhythmbox
13580   seahorse
13581   sound-juicer
13582   system-config-printer
13583   totem-common
13584   transmission-gtk
13585   vinagre
13586   vino
13587 </p></blockquote>
13588
13589 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
13590
13591 <blockquote><p>
13592   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
13593 </p></blockquote>
13594
13595 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
13596
13597 <blockquote><p>
13598 [nothing]
13599 </p></blockquote>
13600
13601 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
13602
13603 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
13604
13605 <blockquote><p>
13606   ksmserver
13607 </p></blockquote>
13608
13609 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
13610
13611 <blockquote><p>
13612   kwin
13613   network-manager-kde
13614 </p></blockquote>
13615
13616 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
13617
13618 <blockquote><p>
13619   arts
13620   dolphin
13621   freespacenotifier
13622   google-gadgets-gst
13623   google-gadgets-xul
13624   kappfinder
13625   kcalc
13626   kcharselect
13627   kde-core
13628   kde-plasma-desktop
13629   kde-standard
13630   kde-window-manager
13631   kdeartwork
13632   kdeartwork-emoticons
13633   kdeartwork-style
13634   kdeartwork-theme-icon
13635   kdebase
13636   kdebase-apps
13637   kdebase-workspace
13638   kdebase-workspace-bin
13639   kdebase-workspace-data
13640   kdeeject
13641   kdelibs
13642   kdeplasma-addons
13643   kdeutils
13644   kdewallpapers
13645   kdf
13646   kfloppy
13647   kgpg
13648   khelpcenter4
13649   kinfocenter
13650   konq-plugins-l10n
13651   konqueror-nsplugins
13652   kscreensaver
13653   kscreensaver-xsavers
13654   ktimer
13655   kwrite
13656   libgle3
13657   libkde4-ruby1.8
13658   libkonq5
13659   libkonq5-templates
13660   libnetpbm10
13661   libplasma-ruby
13662   libplasma-ruby1.8
13663   libqt4-ruby1.8
13664   marble-data
13665   marble-plugins
13666   netpbm
13667   nuvola-icon-theme
13668   plasma-dataengines-workspace
13669   plasma-desktop
13670   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
13671   plasma-runners-addons
13672   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
13673   plasma-scriptengine-python
13674   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
13675   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
13676   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
13677   plasma-scriptengines
13678   plasma-wallpapers-addons
13679   plasma-widget-folderview
13680   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
13681   ruby
13682   sweeper
13683   update-notifier-kde
13684   xscreensaver-data-extra
13685   xscreensaver-gl
13686   xscreensaver-gl-extra
13687   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
13688 </p></blockquote>
13689
13690 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
13691
13692 <blockquote><p>
13693   ark
13694   google-gadgets-common
13695   google-gadgets-qt
13696   htdig
13697   kate
13698   kdebase-bin
13699   kdebase-data
13700   kdepasswd
13701   kfind
13702   klipper
13703   konq-plugins
13704   konqueror
13705   ksysguard
13706   ksysguardd
13707   libarchive1
13708   libcln6
13709   libeet1
13710   libeina-svn-06
13711   libggadget-1.0-0b
13712   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
13713   libgps19
13714   libkdecorations4
13715   libkephal4
13716   libkonq4
13717   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
13718   libkscreensaver5
13719   libksgrd4
13720   libksignalplotter4
13721   libkunitconversion4
13722   libkwineffects1a
13723   libmarblewidget4
13724   libntrack-qt4-1
13725   libntrack0
13726   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
13727   libplasmaclock4a
13728   libplasmagenericshell4
13729   libprocesscore4a
13730   libprocessui4a
13731   libqalculate5
13732   libqedje0a
13733   libqtruby4shared2
13734   libqzion0a
13735   libruby1.8
13736   libscim8c2a
13737   libsmokekdecore4-3
13738   libsmokekdeui4-3
13739   libsmokekfile3
13740   libsmokekhtml3
13741   libsmokekio3
13742   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
13743   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
13744   libsmokekparts3
13745   libsmokektexteditor3
13746   libsmokekutils3
13747   libsmokenepomuk3
13748   libsmokephonon3
13749   libsmokeplasma3
13750   libsmokeqtcore4-3
13751   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
13752   libsmokeqtgui4-3
13753   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
13754   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
13755   libsmokeqtscript4-3
13756   libsmokeqtsql4-3
13757   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
13758   libsmokeqttest4-3
13759   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
13760   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
13761   libsmokeqtxml4-3
13762   libsmokesolid3
13763   libsmokesoprano3
13764   libtaskmanager4a
13765   libtidy-0.99-0
13766   libweather-ion4a
13767   libxklavier16
13768   libxxf86misc1
13769   okteta
13770   oxygencursors
13771   plasma-dataengines-addons
13772   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
13773   plasma-widget-lancelot
13774   plasma-widgets-addons
13775   plasma-widgets-workspace
13776   polkit-kde-1
13777   ruby1.8
13778   systemsettings
13779   update-notifier-common
13780 </p></blockquote>
13781
13782 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
13783 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
13784 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
13785 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
13786
13787       </div>
13788       <div class="tags">
13789
13790
13791         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13792
13793
13794       </div>
13795     </div>
13796     <div class="padding"></div>
13797
13798     <div class="entry">
13799       <div class="title">
13800         <a href="https://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>
13801       </div>
13802       <div class="date">
13803         22nd November 2010
13804       </div>
13805       <div class="body">
13806         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
13807 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
13808 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
13809 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
13810 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
13811 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
13812 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
13813 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
13814 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
13815
13816 <p>I found
13817 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
13818 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
13819 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
13820 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
13821 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
13822 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
13823
13824 <pre>
13825 #!/bin/sh
13826
13827 # Based on
13828 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
13829
13830 set -e
13831 set -x
13832
13833 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
13834     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
13835     exit 1
13836 else
13837     host="$1"
13838 fi
13839
13840 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
13841     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
13842     exit 1
13843 fi
13844
13845 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
13846 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
13847 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
13848 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
13849
13850 img=$host.img
13851 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
13852 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
13853
13854 parted $img mklabel msdos
13855 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
13856 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
13857 parted $img set 1 boot on
13858
13859 modprobe dm-mod
13860 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
13861 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
13862
13863 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
13864 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
13865 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
13866
13867 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
13868 losetup -d /dev/loop0
13869 </pre>
13870
13871 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
13872 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
13873
13874 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
13875 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
13876 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
13877 seem to work just fine.</p>
13878
13879       </div>
13880       <div class="tags">
13881
13882
13883         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
13884
13885
13886       </div>
13887     </div>
13888     <div class="padding"></div>
13889
13890     <div class="entry">
13891       <div class="title">
13892         <a href="https://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>
13893       </div>
13894       <div class="date">
13895         20th November 2010
13896       </div>
13897       <div class="body">
13898         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
13899 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
13900 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
13901 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
13902
13903 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
13904 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
13905 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
13906
13907 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
13908
13909 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
13910
13911 <blockquote><p>
13912   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
13913   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
13914   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
13915   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
13916   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
13917   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
13918   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
13919   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
13920   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
13921   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
13922   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
13923   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
13924   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
13925   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
13926   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
13927   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
13928   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
13929   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
13930   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
13931   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
13932   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
13933   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
13934   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
13935   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
13936   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
13937   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
13938   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
13939   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
13940   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
13941   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
13942   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
13943   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
13944   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
13945   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
13946   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
13947   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
13948   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
13949   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
13950   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
13951   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
13952   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
13953   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
13954   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
13955   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
13956   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
13957   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
13958   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
13959   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
13960   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
13961   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
13962   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
13963   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
13964   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
13965   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
13966   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
13967   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
13968   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
13969   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
13970   zip
13971 </p></blockquote>
13972
13973 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
13974
13975 <blockquote><p>
13976   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
13977   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
13978   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
13979   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
13980   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
13981   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
13982   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
13983   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
13984   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
13985   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
13986   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
13987   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
13988   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
13989   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
13990   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
13991   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
13992   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
13993   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
13994   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
13995   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
13996   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
13997   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
13998   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
13999   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
14000   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
14001   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
14002   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
14003   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
14004   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
14005 </p></blockquote>
14006
14007 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
14008
14009 <blockquote><p>
14010   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
14011 </p></blockquote>
14012
14013 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
14014
14015 <blockquote><p>
14016 [nothing]
14017 </p></blockquote>
14018
14019 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
14020
14021 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
14022
14023 <blockquote><p>
14024   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
14025   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
14026   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
14027   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
14028   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
14029   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
14030   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
14031   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
14032   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
14033   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
14034   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
14035   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
14036   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
14037   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
14038   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
14039   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
14040   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
14041   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
14042   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
14043   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
14044   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
14045   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
14046   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
14047   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
14048   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
14049   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
14050   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
14051   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
14052   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
14053   ttf-sazanami-gothic
14054 </p></blockquote>
14055
14056 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
14057
14058 <blockquote><p>
14059   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
14060   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
14061   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
14062   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
14063   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
14064   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
14065   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
14066   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
14067   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
14068   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
14069   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
14070   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
14071   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
14072   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
14073   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
14074   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
14075   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
14076   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
14077   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
14078   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
14079   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
14080   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
14081   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
14082   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
14083   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
14084   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
14085   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
14086   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
14087   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
14088   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
14089   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
14090   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
14091   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
14092 </p></blockquote>
14093
14094 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
14095
14096 <blockquote><p>
14097   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
14098   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
14099   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
14100   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
14101   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
14102   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
14103   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
14104 </p></blockquote>
14105
14106 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
14107
14108 <blockquote><p>
14109   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
14110 </p></blockquote>
14111
14112       </div>
14113       <div class="tags">
14114
14115
14116         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14117
14118
14119       </div>
14120     </div>
14121     <div class="padding"></div>
14122
14123     <div class="entry">
14124       <div class="title">
14125         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
14126       </div>
14127       <div class="date">
14128         20th November 2010
14129       </div>
14130       <div class="body">
14131         <p>Answering
14132 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
14133 call from the Gnash project</a> for
14134 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
14135 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
14136 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
14137 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
14138 releases out more often.</p>
14139
14140 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
14141 I have considered setting up a <a
14142 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
14143 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
14144 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
14145 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
14146 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
14147 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
14148 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
14149 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
14150 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
14151 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
14152 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
14153 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
14154
14155       </div>
14156       <div class="tags">
14157
14158
14159         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14160
14161
14162       </div>
14163     </div>
14164     <div class="padding"></div>
14165
14166     <div class="entry">
14167       <div class="title">
14168         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
14169       </div>
14170       <div class="date">
14171          9th November 2010
14172       </div>
14173       <div class="body">
14174         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
14175
14176 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
14177 3D linked in from
14178 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
14179 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
14180
14181       </div>
14182       <div class="tags">
14183
14184
14185         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
14186
14187
14188       </div>
14189     </div>
14190     <div class="padding"></div>
14191
14192     <div class="entry">
14193       <div class="title">
14194         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
14195       </div>
14196       <div class="date">
14197         24th October 2010
14198       </div>
14199       <div class="body">
14200         <p>Some updates.</p>
14201
14202 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
14203 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
14204 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
14205 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
14206 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
14207 :)</p>
14208
14209 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
14210 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
14211 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
14212 It is called
14213 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
14214 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
14215 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
14216 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
14217 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
14218 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
14219
14220 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
14221 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
14222 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
14223 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
14224 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
14225 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
14226 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
14227 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
14228 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
14229 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
14230
14231       </div>
14232       <div class="tags">
14233
14234
14235         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
14236
14237
14238       </div>
14239     </div>
14240     <div class="padding"></div>
14241
14242     <div class="entry">
14243       <div class="title">
14244         <a href="https://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>
14245       </div>
14246       <div class="date">
14247          4th September 2010
14248       </div>
14249       <div class="body">
14250         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
14251 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
14252 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
14253 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
14254 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
14255 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
14256 installed.</p>
14257
14258 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
14259 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
14260 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
14261 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
14262 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
14263 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
14264 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
14265 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
14266 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
14267
14268 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
14269 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
14270 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
14271 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
14272 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
14273 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
14274 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
14275 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
14276 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
14277 pages they want to visit.</p>
14278
14279 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
14280 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
14281 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
14282 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
14283 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
14284 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
14285 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
14286 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
14287 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
14288 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
14289 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
14290
14291       </div>
14292       <div class="tags">
14293
14294
14295         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
14296
14297
14298       </div>
14299     </div>
14300     <div class="padding"></div>
14301
14302     <div class="entry">
14303       <div class="title">
14304         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
14305       </div>
14306       <div class="date">
14307         27th July 2010
14308       </div>
14309       <div class="body">
14310         <p>I discovered this while doing
14311 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
14312 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
14313 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
14314 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
14315 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
14316
14317 <p>An example is from todays
14318 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
14319 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
14320 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
14321 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
14322 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
14323 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
14324 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
14325
14326 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
14327
14328 <blockquote><pre>
14329 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
14330  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
14331   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
14332 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
14333  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
14334 </pre></blockquote>
14335
14336 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
14337 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
14338 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
14339 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
14340 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
14341 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
14342 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
14343 of dependency loops.</p>
14344
14345 <p>Thanks to
14346 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
14347 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
14348 dependencies
14349 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
14350 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
14351
14352 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
14353 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
14354 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
14355 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
14356 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
14357 it.</p>
14358
14359       </div>
14360       <div class="tags">
14361
14362
14363         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14364
14365
14366       </div>
14367     </div>
14368     <div class="padding"></div>
14369
14370     <div class="entry">
14371       <div class="title">
14372         <a href="https://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>
14373       </div>
14374       <div class="date">
14375         17th July 2010
14376       </div>
14377       <div class="body">
14378         <p>This is a
14379 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
14380 on my
14381 <a href="https://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
14382 work</a> on
14383 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
14384 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
14385
14386 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
14387 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
14388 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
14389 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
14390
14391 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
14392 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
14393 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
14394
14395 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
14396
14397 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
14398 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
14399 the web.
14400
14401 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
14402 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
14403 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
14404 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
14405 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
14406 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
14407
14408 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
14409 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
14410 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
14411 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
14412 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
14413 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
14414 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
14415 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
14416 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
14417 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
14418 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
14419 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
14420 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
14421 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
14422 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
14423 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
14424
14425 <blockquote><pre>
14426 ldapsearch -h ldap \
14427   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
14428   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
14429   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
14430   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
14431   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
14432   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
14433
14434 ldapsearch -h ldap \
14435   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
14436   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
14437   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
14438   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
14439   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
14440 </pre></blockquote>
14441
14442 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
14443 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
14444 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
14445 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14446 also exist.</p>
14447
14448 <blockquote><pre>
14449 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14450 objectclass: top
14451 objectclass: dnsdomain
14452 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
14453 dc: tjener
14454 arecord: 10.0.2.2
14455 associateddomain: tjener.intern
14456
14457 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14458 objectclass: top
14459 objectclass: dnsdomain2
14460 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
14461 dc: 2
14462 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
14463 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
14464 </pre></blockquote>
14465
14466 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
14467 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
14468 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
14469 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
14470 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
14471 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
14472 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
14473 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
14474 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
14475 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
14476 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
14477 instead.</p>
14478
14479 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
14480 like this:</p>
14481
14482 <blockquote><pre>
14483 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
14484   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
14485   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
14486   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
14487   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
14488   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
14489
14490 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
14491   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
14492 </pre></blockquote>
14493
14494 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
14495 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
14496 reverse lookups.</p>
14497
14498 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
14499 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
14500 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
14501 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
14502
14503 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
14504 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
14505 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
14506
14507 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
14508 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
14509 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
14510 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
14511 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
14512
14513 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
14514 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
14515 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
14516 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
14517 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
14518
14519 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
14520 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
14521 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
14522 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
14523 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
14524 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
14525
14526 <blockquote><pre>
14527 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
14528     SUP top
14529     AUXILIARY
14530     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
14531           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
14532           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
14533           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
14534           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
14535     ))
14536 </pre></blockquote>
14537
14538 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
14539 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
14540 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
14541 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
14542 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
14543 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
14544
14545 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
14546
14547 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
14548 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
14549 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
14550 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
14551 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
14552
14553 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
14554 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
14555 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
14556 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
14557
14558 <blockquote><pre>
14559 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
14560 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
14561 </pre></blockquote>
14562
14563 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
14564 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
14565 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
14566 search result is this entry:</p>
14567
14568 <blockquote><pre>
14569 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14570 cn: dhcp
14571 objectClass: top
14572 objectClass: dhcpServer
14573 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14574 </pre></blockquote>
14575
14576 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
14577 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
14578 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
14579 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
14580 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
14581 The search result is this entry:</p>
14582
14583 <blockquote><pre>
14584 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14585 cn: DHCP Config
14586 objectClass: top
14587 objectClass: dhcpService
14588 objectClass: dhcpOptions
14589 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14590 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
14591 dhcpStatements: authoritative
14592 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
14593 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
14594 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
14595 </pre></blockquote>
14596
14597 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
14598 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
14599 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
14600 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
14601 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
14602 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
14603 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
14604 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
14605 related computer objects.</p>
14606
14607 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
14608 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
14609 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
14610 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
14611 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
14612 like:</p>
14613
14614 <blockquote><pre>
14615 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14616 cn: hostname
14617 objectClass: top
14618 objectClass: dhcpHost
14619 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
14620 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
14621 </pre></blockquote>
14622
14623 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
14624 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
14625 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
14626 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
14627 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
14628 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
14629 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
14630 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
14631 structural object class.
14632
14633 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
14634
14635 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
14636 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
14637 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
14638 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
14639 in the configuration.</p>
14640
14641 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
14642 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
14643 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
14644 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
14645 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
14646 structure.</p>
14647
14648 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
14649 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
14650
14651 <blockquote><pre>
14652 ou=services
14653   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
14654     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
14655     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
14656       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
14657         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
14658     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
14659       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
14660         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
14661     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
14662       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
14663 </pre></blockquote>
14664
14665 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
14666 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
14667 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
14668 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
14669
14670 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
14671 like this:</p>
14672
14673 <blockquote><pre>
14674 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14675 dc: hostname
14676 objectClass: top
14677 objectClass: dhcpHost
14678 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
14679 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
14680 associateddomain: hostname.intern
14681 arecord: 10.11.12.13
14682 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
14683 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
14684 </pre></blockquote>
14685
14686 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
14687 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
14688 auxiliary object class.</p>
14689
14690       </div>
14691       <div class="tags">
14692
14693
14694         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14695
14696
14697       </div>
14698     </div>
14699     <div class="padding"></div>
14700
14701     <div class="entry">
14702       <div class="title">
14703         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
14704       </div>
14705       <div class="date">
14706         14th July 2010
14707       </div>
14708       <div class="body">
14709         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
14710 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
14711 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
14712 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
14713 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
14714
14715 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
14716 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
14717
14718 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
14719 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
14720 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
14721 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
14722 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
14723 to a slave DNS server.</p>
14724
14725 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
14726 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
14727 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
14728 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
14729 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
14730 seem to work.</p>
14731
14732 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
14733 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
14734 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
14735 this:</p>
14736
14737 <blockquote><pre>
14738   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
14739   cn: hostname
14740   objectClass: dhcphost
14741   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
14742   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
14743   associateddomain: hostname.intern
14744   arecord: 10.11.12.13
14745   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
14746   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
14747   ldapconfigsound: Y
14748 </pre></blockquote>
14749
14750 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
14751 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
14752 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
14753 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
14754
14755 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
14756 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
14757 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
14758 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
14759 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
14760 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
14761 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
14762 might be a good place to put it.</p>
14763
14764 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
14765 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
14766
14767       </div>
14768       <div class="tags">
14769
14770
14771         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14772
14773
14774       </div>
14775     </div>
14776     <div class="padding"></div>
14777
14778     <div class="entry">
14779       <div class="title">
14780         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
14781       </div>
14782       <div class="date">
14783         11th July 2010
14784       </div>
14785       <div class="body">
14786         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
14787 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
14788 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
14789 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
14790
14791 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
14792 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
14793 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
14794 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
14795 LTSP clients.</p>
14796
14797 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
14798 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
14799 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
14800
14801 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
14802 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
14803 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
14804
14805 <blockquote><pre>
14806 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
14807 #
14808 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
14809 #
14810 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
14811 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
14812 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
14813 #
14814 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
14815 # existence of attribute names.
14816 #
14817 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
14818 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
14819 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
14820 #
14821 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
14822 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
14823 #
14824 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
14825 #     SUP top
14826 #     AUXILIARY
14827 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
14828
14829 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
14830 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
14831     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
14832     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
14833         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
14834         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
14835             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
14836             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
14837             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
14838             # bass value on to clients
14839             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
14840         done
14841     done
14842 fi
14843 </pre></blockquote>
14844
14845 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
14846 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
14847 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
14848 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
14849 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
14850
14851 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
14852 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
14853
14854 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
14855 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
14856 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
14857 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
14858 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
14859 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
14860
14861       </div>
14862       <div class="tags">
14863
14864
14865         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14866
14867
14868       </div>
14869     </div>
14870     <div class="padding"></div>
14871
14872     <div class="entry">
14873       <div class="title">
14874         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
14875       </div>
14876       <div class="date">
14877          9th July 2010
14878       </div>
14879       <div class="body">
14880         <p>Since
14881 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
14882 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
14883 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
14884 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
14885 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
14886 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
14887 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
14888 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
14889 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
14890 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
14891 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
14892 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
14893 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
14894
14895       </div>
14896       <div class="tags">
14897
14898
14899         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
14900
14901
14902       </div>
14903     </div>
14904     <div class="padding"></div>
14905
14906     <div class="entry">
14907       <div class="title">
14908         <a href="https://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>
14909       </div>
14910       <div class="date">
14911          3rd July 2010
14912       </div>
14913       <div class="body">
14914         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
14915 href="https://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
14916 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
14917 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
14918 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
14919 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
14920 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
14921 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
14922
14923 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
14924 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
14925 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
14926 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
14927 publish the difference.</p>
14928
14929 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
14930
14931 <blockquote><p>
14932   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
14933   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
14934   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
14935   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
14936   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
14937   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
14938   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
14939   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
14940 </p></blockquote>
14941
14942 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
14943
14944 <blockquote><p>
14945   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
14946   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
14947   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
14948   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
14949   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
14950   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
14951   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
14952   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
14953   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
14954   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
14955   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
14956   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
14957   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
14958   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
14959   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
14960   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
14961   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
14962   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
14963   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
14964   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
14965 </p></blockquote>
14966
14967 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
14968
14969 <blockquote><p>
14970   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
14971   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
14972   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
14973   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
14974   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
14975   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
14976   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
14977   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
14978   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
14979   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
14980   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
14981   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
14982   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
14983   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
14984   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
14985   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
14986   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
14987   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
14988   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
14989   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
14990   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
14991 </p></blockquote>
14992
14993 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
14994
14995 <blockquote><p>
14996   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
14997   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
14998   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
14999 </p></blockquote>
15000
15001 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
15002 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
15003 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
15004 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
15005 the difference somewhat.
15006
15007       </div>
15008       <div class="tags">
15009
15010
15011         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15012
15013
15014       </div>
15015     </div>
15016     <div class="padding"></div>
15017
15018     <div class="entry">
15019       <div class="title">
15020         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
15021       </div>
15022       <div class="date">
15023         28th June 2010
15024       </div>
15025       <div class="body">
15026         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
15027 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
15028 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
15029 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
15030 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
15031 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
15032 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
15033 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
15034 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
15035 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
15036
15037 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
15038 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
15039 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
15040 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
15041 released.</p>
15042
15043 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
15044 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
15045 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
15046 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
15047
15048 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
15049 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
15050
15051 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
15052 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
15053 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
15054 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
15055 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
15056
15057       </div>
15058       <div class="tags">
15059
15060
15061         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
15062
15063
15064       </div>
15065     </div>
15066     <div class="padding"></div>
15067
15068     <div class="entry">
15069       <div class="title">
15070         <a href="https://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>
15071       </div>
15072       <div class="date">
15073         24th June 2010
15074       </div>
15075       <div class="body">
15076         <p>A while back, I
15077 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
15078 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
15079 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
15080 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
15081
15082 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
15083 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
15084 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
15085 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
15086
15087 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
15088 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
15089 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
15090 Debian Edu.</p>
15091
15092 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
15093 the
15094 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
15095 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
15096 available today from IETF.</p>
15097
15098 <pre>
15099 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
15100 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
15101 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
15102  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
15103         NAME 'dhcpHost'
15104         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
15105 -       SUP top
15106 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
15107         MUST cn
15108         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
15109         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
15110 </pre>
15111
15112 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
15113 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
15114 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
15115
15116 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
15117 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
15118
15119       </div>
15120       <div class="tags">
15121
15122
15123         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
15124
15125
15126       </div>
15127     </div>
15128     <div class="padding"></div>
15129
15130     <div class="entry">
15131       <div class="title">
15132         <a href="https://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>
15133       </div>
15134       <div class="date">
15135         16th June 2010
15136       </div>
15137       <div class="body">
15138         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
15139 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
15140 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
15141 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
15142 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
15143 this:
15144
15145 <blockquote><pre>
15146 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
15147 tasksel --new-install
15148 </pre></blockquote>
15149
15150 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
15151 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
15152 any output what so ever.
15153
15154 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
15155 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
15156 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
15157 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
15158 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
15159 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
15160 code like this:
15161
15162 <blockquote><pre>
15163 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
15164 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
15165 $cmd
15166 </pre></blockquote>
15167
15168 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
15169 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
15170 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
15171 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
15172 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
15173 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
15174 installation.</p>
15175
15176 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
15177 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
15178 like this.</p>
15179
15180       </div>
15181       <div class="tags">
15182
15183
15184         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
15185
15186
15187       </div>
15188     </div>
15189     <div class="padding"></div>
15190
15191     <div class="entry">
15192       <div class="title">
15193         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
15194       </div>
15195       <div class="date">
15196         13th June 2010
15197       </div>
15198       <div class="body">
15199         <p>My
15200 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
15201 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
15202 finally made the upgrade logs available from
15203 <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
15204 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
15205 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
15206 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
15207
15208 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
15209 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
15210 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
15211 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
15212 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
15213 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
15214 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
15215 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
15216
15217 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
15218 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
15219 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
15220 too surprising.</p>
15221
15222 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
15223 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
15224 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
15225 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
15226 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
15227 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
15228 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
15229 continue.</p>
15230
15231 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
15232 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
15233   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
15234   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
15235   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
15236   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
15237   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
15238   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
15239   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
15240   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
15241   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
15242   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
15243   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
15244   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
15245   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
15246   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
15247   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
15248   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
15249   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
15250   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
15251   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
15252   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
15253   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
15254   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
15255   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
15256   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
15257   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
15258   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
15259   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
15260   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
15261
15262 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
15263
15264 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
15265   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
15266   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
15267   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
15268   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
15269   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
15270   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
15271   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
15272   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
15273   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
15274   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
15275   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
15276   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
15277   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
15278   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
15279   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
15280   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
15281   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
15282   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
15283   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
15284   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
15285   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
15286   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
15287   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
15288   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
15289   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
15290   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
15291   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
15292   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
15293   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
15294   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
15295   zip</p>
15296
15297 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
15298
15299 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
15300   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
15301   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
15302   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
15303   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
15304   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
15305   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
15306   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
15307   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
15308   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
15309   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
15310   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
15311   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
15312   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
15313   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
15314   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
15315   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
15316   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
15317   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
15318   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
15319   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
15320   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
15321   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
15322   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
15323   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
15324   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
15325   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
15326   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
15327
15328 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
15329 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
15330   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
15331   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
15332   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
15333   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
15334   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
15335   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
15336   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
15337   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
15338   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
15339   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
15340   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
15341   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
15342   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
15343   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
15344   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
15345   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
15346   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
15347   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
15348   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
15349   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
15350   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
15351   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
15352   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
15353   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
15354   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
15355   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
15356   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
15357   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
15358   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
15359   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
15360   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
15361   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
15362   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
15363   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
15364   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
15365   xulrunner-1.9</p>
15366
15367
15368       </div>
15369       <div class="tags">
15370
15371
15372         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15373
15374
15375       </div>
15376     </div>
15377     <div class="padding"></div>
15378
15379     <div class="entry">
15380       <div class="title">
15381         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
15382       </div>
15383       <div class="date">
15384         11th June 2010
15385       </div>
15386       <div class="body">
15387         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
15388 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
15389 have been discovered and reported in the process
15390 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
15391 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
15392 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
15393 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
15394 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
15395
15396 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
15397 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
15398 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
15399 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
15400 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
15401 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
15402
15403 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
15404 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
15405 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
15406 is created.  The bug report
15407 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
15408 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
15409 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
15410 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
15411 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
15412 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
15413 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
15414 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
15415 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
15416 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
15417 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
15418 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
15419 Debian Squeeze.</p>
15420
15421 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
15422 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
15423 trick:</p>
15424
15425 <blockquote><pre>
15426 #!/bin/sh
15427 set -ex
15428
15429 if [ "$1" ] ; then
15430     desktop=$1
15431 else
15432     desktop=gnome
15433 fi
15434
15435 from=lenny
15436 to=squeeze
15437
15438 exec &lt; /dev/null
15439 unset LANG
15440 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
15441 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
15442 fuser -mv .
15443 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
15444 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
15445 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
15446 #!/bin/sh
15447 exit 101
15448 EOF
15449 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
15450 exit_cleanup() {
15451     umount $tmpdir/proc
15452 }
15453 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
15454 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
15455 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
15456
15457 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
15458
15459 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
15460 # to return the correct answers.
15461 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
15462     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
15463
15464 # Include the desktop and laptop task
15465 for test in desktop laptop ; do
15466     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
15467 #!/bin/sh
15468 exit 2
15469 EOF
15470     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
15471 done
15472
15473 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
15474 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
15475 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
15476 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
15477
15478 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
15479 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
15480 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
15481 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
15482 fuser -mv
15483 </pre></blockquote>
15484
15485 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
15486 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
15487 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
15488 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
15489 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
15490 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
15491
15492 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
15493 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
15494 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
15495 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
15496 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
15497 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
15498 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
15499
15500 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
15501 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
15502 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
15503 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
15504 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
15505 packages.</p>
15506
15507       </div>
15508       <div class="tags">
15509
15510
15511         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15512
15513
15514       </div>
15515     </div>
15516     <div class="padding"></div>
15517
15518     <div class="entry">
15519       <div class="title">
15520         <a href="https://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>
15521       </div>
15522       <div class="date">
15523          6th June 2010
15524       </div>
15525       <div class="body">
15526         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
15527 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
15528 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
15529 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
15530 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
15531 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
15532 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
15533
15534 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
15535 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
15536 COLUMNS):</p>
15537
15538 <blockquote><pre>
15539 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
15540 previous=N
15541 PREVLEVEL=
15542 RUNLEVEL=
15543 runlevel=S
15544 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
15545 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
15546 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
15547 </pre></blockquote>
15548
15549 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
15550 script.</p>
15551
15552 <blockquote><pre>
15553 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
15554 previous=N
15555 PREVLEVEL=N
15556 RUNLEVEL=S
15557 runlevel=S
15558 </pre></blockquote>
15559
15560 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
15561 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
15562 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
15563
15564 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
15565 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
15566 choice.</p>
15567
15568       </div>
15569       <div class="tags">
15570
15571
15572         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15573
15574
15575       </div>
15576     </div>
15577     <div class="padding"></div>
15578
15579     <div class="entry">
15580       <div class="title">
15581         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
15582       </div>
15583       <div class="date">
15584          6th June 2010
15585       </div>
15586       <div class="body">
15587         <p>Via the
15588 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
15589 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
15590 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
15591 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
15592 following the standards wars of today.</p>
15593
15594       </div>
15595       <div class="tags">
15596
15597
15598         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
15599
15600
15601       </div>
15602     </div>
15603     <div class="padding"></div>
15604
15605     <div class="entry">
15606       <div class="title">
15607         <a href="https://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>
15608       </div>
15609       <div class="date">
15610          3rd June 2010
15611       </div>
15612       <div class="body">
15613         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
15614 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
15615 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
15616 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
15617 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
15618
15619 <blockquote><pre>
15620 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
15621   vendor                    count
15622   Dell Computer Corporation     1
15623     PowerEdge 1750              1
15624   IBM                           1
15625     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
15626   Intel                         2
15627   [no-dmi-info]                 3
15628 maintainer:~#
15629 </pre></blockquote>
15630
15631 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
15632 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
15633 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
15634 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
15635 option to list the individual machines.</p>
15636
15637 <p>A larger list is
15638 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
15639 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
15640 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
15641 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
15642 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
15643 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
15644 collector.</p>
15645
15646       </div>
15647       <div class="tags">
15648
15649
15650         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
15651
15652
15653       </div>
15654     </div>
15655     <div class="padding"></div>
15656
15657     <div class="entry">
15658       <div class="title">
15659         <a href="https://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>
15660       </div>
15661       <div class="date">
15662          1st June 2010
15663       </div>
15664       <div class="body">
15665         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
15666 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
15667 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
15668 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
15669 wait.</p>
15670
15671 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
15672 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
15673 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
15674 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
15675 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
15676 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
15677
15678 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
15679 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
15680 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
15681 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
15682 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
15683 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
15684 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
15685 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
15686
15687 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
15688
15689       </div>
15690       <div class="tags">
15691
15692
15693         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15694
15695
15696       </div>
15697     </div>
15698     <div class="padding"></div>
15699
15700     <div class="entry">
15701       <div class="title">
15702         <a href="https://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>
15703       </div>
15704       <div class="date">
15705         27th May 2010
15706       </div>
15707       <div class="body">
15708         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
15709 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
15710 issues are known and should be solved:
15711
15712 <p><ul>
15713
15714 <li>The wicd package seen to
15715 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
15716 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
15717 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
15718 seem to be on the case.</li>
15719
15720 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
15721 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
15722 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
15723 maintainer is on the case.</li>
15724
15725 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
15726 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
15727 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
15728 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
15729 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
15730 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
15731 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
15732 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
15733
15734 </ul></p>
15735
15736 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
15737 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
15738 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
15739 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
15740
15741 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
15742 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
15743 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
15744 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
15745
15746 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
15747
15748       </div>
15749       <div class="tags">
15750
15751
15752         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15753
15754
15755       </div>
15756     </div>
15757     <div class="padding"></div>
15758
15759     <div class="entry">
15760       <div class="title">
15761         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
15762       </div>
15763       <div class="date">
15764         22nd May 2010
15765       </div>
15766       <div class="body">
15767         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
15768 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
15769 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
15770 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
15771
15772 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
15773 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
15774 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
15775 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
15776 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
15777 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
15778 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
15779 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
15780 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
15781 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
15782 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
15783 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
15784 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
15785 going to work.</p>
15786
15787 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
15788 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
15789 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
15790 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
15791 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
15792 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
15793 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
15794 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
15795 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
15796 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
15797 Edu.</p>
15798
15799 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
15800 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
15801 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
15802 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
15803 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
15804 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
15805
15806 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
15807 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
15808
15809       </div>
15810       <div class="tags">
15811
15812
15813         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15814
15815
15816       </div>
15817     </div>
15818     <div class="padding"></div>
15819
15820     <div class="entry">
15821       <div class="title">
15822         <a href="https://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>
15823       </div>
15824       <div class="date">
15825         14th May 2010
15826       </div>
15827       <div class="body">
15828         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
15829 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
15830 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
15831 expected, if I am to believe the
15832 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
15833 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
15834 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
15835 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
15836 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
15837 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
15838 version.</p>
15839
15840 More information about
15841 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
15842 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
15843 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
15844 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
15845
15846 <blockquote><pre>
15847 CONCURRENCY=none
15848 </pre></blockquote>
15849
15850 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
15851 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
15852 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
15853 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
15854
15855       </div>
15856       <div class="tags">
15857
15858
15859         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15860
15861
15862       </div>
15863     </div>
15864     <div class="padding"></div>
15865
15866     <div class="entry">
15867       <div class="title">
15868         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
15869       </div>
15870       <div class="date">
15871         14th May 2010
15872       </div>
15873       <div class="body">
15874         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
15875 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
15876 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
15877 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
15878 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
15879 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
15880 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
15881 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
15882
15883 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
15884 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
15885 this on the collector host:</p>
15886
15887 <blockquote><pre>
15888 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
15889 </pre></blockquote>
15890
15891 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
15892 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
15893
15894 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
15895 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
15896 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
15897 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
15898 written yet.</p>
15899
15900       </div>
15901       <div class="tags">
15902
15903
15904         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
15905
15906
15907       </div>
15908     </div>
15909     <div class="padding"></div>
15910
15911     <div class="entry">
15912       <div class="title">
15913         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
15914       </div>
15915       <div class="date">
15916         13th May 2010
15917       </div>
15918       <div class="body">
15919         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
15920 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
15921 has been
15922 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
15923
15924 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
15925 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
15926 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
15927 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
15928 based boot system.  Tollef is
15929 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
15930 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
15931 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
15932 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
15933 at the moment do not.</p>
15934
15935 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
15936 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
15937 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
15938 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
15939 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
15940 way forward.</p>
15941
15942 <p>In the mean time, based on the
15943 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
15944 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
15945 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
15946 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
15947 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
15948 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
15949 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
15950 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
15951
15952       </div>
15953       <div class="tags">
15954
15955
15956         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
15957
15958
15959       </div>
15960     </div>
15961     <div class="padding"></div>
15962
15963     <div class="entry">
15964       <div class="title">
15965         <a href="https://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>
15966       </div>
15967       <div class="date">
15968          6th May 2010
15969       </div>
15970       <div class="body">
15971         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
15972 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
15973 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
15974 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
15975 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
15976 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
15977 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
15978
15979 <blockquote><pre>
15980 CONCURRENCY=makefile
15981 </pre></blockquote>
15982
15983 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
15984 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
15985 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
15986 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
15987 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
15988 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
15989 make this happen.</p>
15990
15991 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
15992 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
15993 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
15994 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
15995 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
15996
15997 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
15998 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
15999 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
16000 fix the remaining issues.</p>
16001
16002 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
16003 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
16004 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
16005 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
16006
16007       </div>
16008       <div class="tags">
16009
16010
16011         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16012
16013
16014       </div>
16015     </div>
16016     <div class="padding"></div>
16017
16018     <div class="entry">
16019       <div class="title">
16020         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
16021       </div>
16022       <div class="date">
16023         27th July 2009
16024       </div>
16025       <div class="body">
16026         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
16027 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
16028 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
16029 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
16030 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
16031 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
16032 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
16033
16034 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
16035 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
16036 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
16037
16038       </div>
16039       <div class="tags">
16040
16041
16042         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16043
16044
16045       </div>
16046     </div>
16047     <div class="padding"></div>
16048
16049     <div class="entry">
16050       <div class="title">
16051         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
16052       </div>
16053       <div class="date">
16054         22nd July 2009
16055       </div>
16056       <div class="body">
16057         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
16058 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
16059 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
16060 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
16061 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
16062 the package up to date.</p>
16063
16064 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
16065 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
16066 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
16067 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
16068 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
16069 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
16070 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
16071 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
16072 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
16073 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
16074 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
16075 working on the future release.</p>
16076
16077 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
16078 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
16079
16080       </div>
16081       <div class="tags">
16082
16083
16084         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16085
16086
16087       </div>
16088     </div>
16089     <div class="padding"></div>
16090
16091     <div class="entry">
16092       <div class="title">
16093         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
16094       </div>
16095       <div class="date">
16096         24th June 2009
16097       </div>
16098       <div class="body">
16099         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
16100 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
16101 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
16102 funded
16103 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
16104 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
16105 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
16106 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
16107 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
16108 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
16109
16110 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
16111 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
16112 boot:</p>
16113
16114 <ul>
16115
16116 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
16117
16118 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
16119    clock is in UTC.</li>
16120
16121 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
16122    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
16123    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
16124
16125 </ul>
16126
16127 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
16128 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
16129 Villegas</a>.
16130
16131 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
16132 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
16133 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
16134 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
16135 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
16136 using this.</p>
16137
16138 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
16139 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
16140 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
16141 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
16142 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
16143 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
16144 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
16145
16146       </div>
16147       <div class="tags">
16148
16149
16150         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16151
16152
16153       </div>
16154     </div>
16155     <div class="padding"></div>
16156
16157     <div class="entry">
16158       <div class="title">
16159         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
16160       </div>
16161       <div class="date">
16162         17th May 2009
16163       </div>
16164       <div class="body">
16165         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
16166 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
16167 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
16168 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
16169 dager siden kom
16170 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
16171 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
16172 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
16173 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
16174 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
16175
16176 <blockquote>
16177 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
16178 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
16179 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
16180 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
16181 </blockquote>
16182
16183 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
16184 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
16185 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
16186 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
16187 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
16188
16189 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
16190 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
16191 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
16192
16193       </div>
16194       <div class="tags">
16195
16196
16197         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
16198
16199
16200       </div>
16201     </div>
16202     <div class="padding"></div>
16203
16204     <div class="entry">
16205       <div class="title">
16206         <a href="https://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>
16207       </div>
16208       <div class="date">
16209          7th May 2009
16210       </div>
16211       <div class="body">
16212         <p>Kom over
16213 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
16214 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
16215 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
16216 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
16217 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
16218 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
16219 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
16220
16221       </div>
16222       <div class="tags">
16223
16224
16225         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16226
16227
16228       </div>
16229     </div>
16230     <div class="padding"></div>
16231
16232     <div class="entry">
16233       <div class="title">
16234         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
16235       </div>
16236       <div class="date">
16237          2nd May 2009
16238       </div>
16239       <div class="body">
16240         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
16241 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
16242 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
16243 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
16244 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
16245 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
16246 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
16247 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
16248 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
16249 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
16250 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
16251 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
16252 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
16253 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
16254 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
16255 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
16256 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
16257 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
16258 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
16259 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
16260
16261 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
16262 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
16263 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
16264 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
16265 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
16266 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
16267 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
16268 betydelige.</p>
16269
16270       </div>
16271       <div class="tags">
16272
16273
16274         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
16275
16276
16277       </div>
16278     </div>
16279     <div class="padding"></div>
16280
16281     <div class="entry">
16282       <div class="title">
16283         <a href="https://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>
16284       </div>
16285       <div class="date">
16286          2nd May 2009
16287       </div>
16288       <div class="body">
16289         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
16290 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
16291 do not yet know them.</p>
16292
16293 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
16294 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
16295 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
16296 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
16297 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
16298 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
16299 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
16300 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
16301 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
16302 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
16303 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
16304
16305 <p>The second one is
16306 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
16307 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
16308 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
16309 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
16310 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
16311 and the company behind it is running
16312 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
16313 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
16314 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
16315 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
16316 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
16317 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
16318 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
16319 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
16320
16321 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
16322 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
16323 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
16324 surrounded by today.</p>
16325
16326       </div>
16327       <div class="tags">
16328
16329
16330         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
16331
16332
16333       </div>
16334     </div>
16335     <div class="padding"></div>
16336
16337     <div class="entry">
16338       <div class="title">
16339         <a href="https://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>
16340       </div>
16341       <div class="date">
16342         28th April 2009
16343       </div>
16344       <div class="body">
16345         <p>Julien Blache
16346 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
16347 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
16348 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
16349 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
16350 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
16351 properties.</p>
16352
16353       </div>
16354       <div class="tags">
16355
16356
16357         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16358
16359
16360       </div>
16361     </div>
16362     <div class="padding"></div>
16363
16364     <div class="entry">
16365       <div class="title">
16366         <a href="https://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>
16367       </div>
16368       <div class="date">
16369         30th March 2009
16370       </div>
16371       <div class="body">
16372         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
16373 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
16374 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
16375 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
16376 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
16377 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
16378 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
16379 application.</p>
16380
16381 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
16382 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
16383 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
16384 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
16385 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
16386 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
16387 blocked from doing so.</p>
16388
16389 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
16390 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
16391 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
16392 requirements change.</p>
16393
16394 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
16395 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
16396 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
16397
16398       </div>
16399       <div class="tags">
16400
16401
16402         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
16403
16404
16405       </div>
16406     </div>
16407     <div class="padding"></div>
16408
16409     <div class="entry">
16410       <div class="title">
16411         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
16412       </div>
16413       <div class="date">
16414         29th March 2009
16415       </div>
16416       <div class="body">
16417         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
16418 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
16419 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
16420 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
16421 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
16422 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
16423 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
16424 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
16425 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
16426 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
16427 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
16428 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
16429 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
16430 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
16431 now. :)</p>
16432
16433       </div>
16434       <div class="tags">
16435
16436
16437         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16438
16439
16440       </div>
16441     </div>
16442     <div class="padding"></div>
16443
16444     <div class="entry">
16445       <div class="title">
16446         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
16447       </div>
16448       <div class="date">
16449         29th March 2009
16450       </div>
16451       <div class="body">
16452         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
16453 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
16454 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
16455 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
16456 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
16457 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
16458
16459 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
16460 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
16461 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
16462 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
16463 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
16464 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
16465 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
16466 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
16467 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
16468 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
16469 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
16470 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
16471 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
16472
16473 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
16474 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
16475 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
16476 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
16477
16478 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
16479 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
16480
16481 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
16482 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
16483 new IETF work group?</p>
16484
16485       </div>
16486       <div class="tags">
16487
16488
16489         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16490
16491
16492       </div>
16493     </div>
16494     <div class="padding"></div>
16495
16496     <div class="entry">
16497       <div class="title">
16498         <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
16499       </div>
16500       <div class="date">
16501         15th February 2009
16502       </div>
16503       <div class="body">
16504         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
16505 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
16506 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
16507 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
16508 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
16509 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
16510 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
16511 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
16512 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
16513 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
16514 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
16515 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
16516
16517       </div>
16518       <div class="tags">
16519
16520
16521         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
16522
16523
16524       </div>
16525     </div>
16526     <div class="padding"></div>
16527
16528     <div class="entry">
16529       <div class="title">
16530         <a href="https://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>
16531       </div>
16532       <div class="date">
16533          7th December 2008
16534       </div>
16535       <div class="body">
16536         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
16537 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
16538 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
16539 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
16540 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
16541 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
16542 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
16543 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
16544
16545 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
16546 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
16547 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
16548 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
16549 of these cards.</p>
16550
16551       </div>
16552       <div class="tags">
16553
16554
16555         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
16556
16557
16558       </div>
16559     </div>
16560     <div class="padding"></div>
16561
16562     <div class="entry">
16563       <div class="title">
16564         <a href="https://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>
16565       </div>
16566       <div class="date">
16567         25th November 2008
16568       </div>
16569       <div class="body">
16570         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
16571 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
16572 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
16573 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
16574 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
16575 notes are available on
16576 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
16577 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
16578 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
16579 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
16580 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
16581 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
16582 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
16583 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
16584 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
16585
16586 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
16587 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
16588
16589       </div>
16590       <div class="tags">
16591
16592
16593         Tags: <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
16594
16595
16596       </div>
16597     </div>
16598     <div class="padding"></div>
16599
16600     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
16601     <div id="sidebar">
16602
16603
16604
16605 <h2>Archive</h2>
16606 <ul>
16607
16608 <li>2024
16609 <ul>
16610
16611 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2024/01/">January (1)</a></li>
16612
16613 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2024/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16614
16615 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2024/03/">March (2)</a></li>
16616
16617 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2024/04/">April (3)</a></li>
16618
16619 </ul></li>
16620
16621 <li>2023
16622 <ul>
16623
16624 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/01/">January (3)</a></li>
16625
16626 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16627
16628 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/04/">April (2)</a></li>
16629
16630 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/05/">May (3)</a></li>
16631
16632 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/06/">June (1)</a></li>
16633
16634 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/08/">August (1)</a></li>
16635
16636 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16637
16638 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/10/">October (1)</a></li>
16639
16640 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/11/">November (4)</a></li>
16641
16642 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2023/12/">December (1)</a></li>
16643
16644 </ul></li>
16645
16646 <li>2022
16647 <ul>
16648
16649 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16650
16651 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/03/">March (3)</a></li>
16652
16653 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/04/">April (2)</a></li>
16654
16655 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16656
16657 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/07/">July (1)</a></li>
16658
16659 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16660
16661 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/10/">October (1)</a></li>
16662
16663 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2022/12/">December (1)</a></li>
16664
16665 </ul></li>
16666
16667 <li>2021
16668 <ul>
16669
16670 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/01/">January (2)</a></li>
16671
16672 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16673
16674 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/05/">May (1)</a></li>
16675
16676 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/06/">June (1)</a></li>
16677
16678 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/07/">July (3)</a></li>
16679
16680 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/08/">August (1)</a></li>
16681
16682 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16683
16684 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/10/">October (1)</a></li>
16685
16686 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2021/12/">December (1)</a></li>
16687
16688 </ul></li>
16689
16690 <li>2020
16691 <ul>
16692
16693 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/02/">February (2)</a></li>
16694
16695 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/03/">March (2)</a></li>
16696
16697 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/04/">April (2)</a></li>
16698
16699 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/05/">May (3)</a></li>
16700
16701 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16702
16703 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/07/">July (1)</a></li>
16704
16705 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16706
16707 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/10/">October (1)</a></li>
16708
16709 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2020/11/">November (1)</a></li>
16710
16711 </ul></li>
16712
16713 <li>2019
16714 <ul>
16715
16716 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/01/">January (4)</a></li>
16717
16718 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/02/">February (3)</a></li>
16719
16720 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/03/">March (3)</a></li>
16721
16722 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/05/">May (2)</a></li>
16723
16724 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/06/">June (5)</a></li>
16725
16726 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/07/">July (2)</a></li>
16727
16728 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/08/">August (1)</a></li>
16729
16730 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16731
16732 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/11/">November (1)</a></li>
16733
16734 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2019/12/">December (4)</a></li>
16735
16736 </ul></li>
16737
16738 <li>2018
16739 <ul>
16740
16741 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/01/">January (1)</a></li>
16742
16743 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/02/">February (5)</a></li>
16744
16745 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/03/">March (5)</a></li>
16746
16747 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/04/">April (3)</a></li>
16748
16749 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16750
16751 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/07/">July (5)</a></li>
16752
16753 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/08/">August (3)</a></li>
16754
16755 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/09/">September (3)</a></li>
16756
16757 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/10/">October (5)</a></li>
16758
16759 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/11/">November (2)</a></li>
16760
16761 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2018/12/">December (4)</a></li>
16762
16763 </ul></li>
16764
16765 <li>2017
16766 <ul>
16767
16768 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
16769
16770 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
16771
16772 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (5)</a></li>
16773
16774 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/04/">April (2)</a></li>
16775
16776 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/06/">June (5)</a></li>
16777
16778 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/07/">July (1)</a></li>
16779
16780 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/08/">August (1)</a></li>
16781
16782 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/09/">September (3)</a></li>
16783
16784 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/10/">October (5)</a></li>
16785
16786 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/11/">November (3)</a></li>
16787
16788 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/12/">December (4)</a></li>
16789
16790 </ul></li>
16791
16792 <li>2016
16793 <ul>
16794
16795 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
16796
16797 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
16798
16799 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
16800
16801 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
16802
16803 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
16804
16805 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16806
16807 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
16808
16809 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
16810
16811 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
16812
16813 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
16814
16815 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
16816
16817 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
16818
16819 </ul></li>
16820
16821 <li>2015
16822 <ul>
16823
16824 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
16825
16826 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
16827
16828 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
16829
16830 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
16831
16832 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
16833
16834 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
16835
16836 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
16837
16838 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
16839
16840 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
16841
16842 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
16843
16844 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
16845
16846 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
16847
16848 </ul></li>
16849
16850 <li>2014
16851 <ul>
16852
16853 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
16854
16855 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
16856
16857 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
16858
16859 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
16860
16861 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
16862
16863 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16864
16865 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
16866
16867 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
16868
16869 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
16870
16871 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
16872
16873 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
16874
16875 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
16876
16877 </ul></li>
16878
16879 <li>2013
16880 <ul>
16881
16882 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
16883
16884 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
16885
16886 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
16887
16888 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
16889
16890 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
16891
16892 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
16893
16894 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
16895
16896 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
16897
16898 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
16899
16900 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
16901
16902 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
16903
16904 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
16905
16906 </ul></li>
16907
16908 <li>2012
16909 <ul>
16910
16911 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
16912
16913 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
16914
16915 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
16916
16917 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
16918
16919 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
16920
16921 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
16922
16923 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
16924
16925 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
16926
16927 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
16928
16929 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
16930
16931 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
16932
16933 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
16934
16935 </ul></li>
16936
16937 <li>2011
16938 <ul>
16939
16940 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
16941
16942 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
16943
16944 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
16945
16946 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
16947
16948 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
16949
16950 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16951
16952 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
16953
16954 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
16955
16956 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
16957
16958 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
16959
16960 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
16961
16962 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
16963
16964 </ul></li>
16965
16966 <li>2010
16967 <ul>
16968
16969 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
16970
16971 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16972
16973 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
16974
16975 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
16976
16977 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
16978
16979 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
16980
16981 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
16982
16983 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
16984
16985 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
16986
16987 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
16988
16989 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
16990
16991 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
16992
16993 </ul></li>
16994
16995 <li>2009
16996 <ul>
16997
16998 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
16999
17000 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
17001
17002 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
17003
17004 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
17005
17006 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
17007
17008 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
17009
17010 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
17011
17012 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
17013
17014 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
17015
17016 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
17017
17018 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
17019
17020 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
17021
17022 </ul></li>
17023
17024 <li>2008
17025 <ul>
17026
17027 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
17028
17029 <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
17030
17031 </ul></li>
17032
17033 </ul>
17034
17035
17036
17037 <h2>Tags</h2>
17038 <ul>
17039
17040  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (19)</a></li>
17041
17042  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
17043
17044  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
17045
17046  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
17047
17048  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/betalkontant">betalkontant (9)</a></li>
17049
17050  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (13)</a></li>
17051
17052  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (17)</a></li>
17053
17054  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
17055
17056  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (3)</a></li>
17057
17058  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (199)</a></li>
17059
17060  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (159)</a></li>
17061
17062  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (9)</a></li>
17063
17064  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (11)</a></li>
17065
17066  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (18)</a></li>
17067
17068  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (32)</a></li>
17069
17070  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
17071
17072  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (461)</a></li>
17073
17074  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
17075
17076  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (14)</a></li>
17077
17078  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (34)</a></li>
17079
17080  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
17081
17082  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (20)</a></li>
17083
17084  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
17085
17086  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (43)</a></li>
17087
17088  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (18)</a></li>
17089
17090  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (23)</a></li>
17091
17092  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kodi">kodi (6)</a></li>
17093
17094  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
17095
17096  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lego">lego (5)</a></li>
17097
17098  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
17099
17100  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/linuxcnc">linuxcnc (5)</a></li>
17101
17102  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
17103
17104  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
17105
17106  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/madewithcc">madewithcc (3)</a></li>
17107
17108  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
17109
17110  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (46)</a></li>
17111
17112  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (15)</a></li>
17113
17114  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/noark5">noark5 (25)</a></li>
17115
17116  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (324)</a></li>
17117
17118  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (199)</a></li>
17119
17120  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (41)</a></li>
17121
17122  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
17123
17124  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opensnitch">opensnitch (4)</a></li>
17125
17126  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (76)</a></li>
17127
17128  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (114)</a></li>
17129
17130  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (4)</a></li>
17131
17132  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
17133
17134  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
17135
17136  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
17137
17138  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (17)</a></li>
17139
17140  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
17141
17142  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (7)</a></li>
17143
17144  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
17145
17146  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (60)</a></li>
17147
17148  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
17149
17150  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
17151
17152  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (76)</a></li>
17153
17154  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (7)</a></li>
17155
17156  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (14)</a></li>
17157
17158  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (65)</a></li>
17159
17160  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (5)</a></li>
17161
17162  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
17163
17164  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (9)</a></li>
17165
17166  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/verkidetfri">verkidetfri (22)</a></li>
17167
17168  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (80)</a></li>
17169
17170  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
17171
17172  <li><a href="https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (42)</a></li>
17173
17174 </ul>
17175
17176
17177     </div>
17178     <p style="text-align: right">
17179  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
17180 </p>
17181
17182   </body>
17183 </html>